By Estelle Belbutowski as translated by staff at Out to Pasture Retirement Home 

When we told Estelle, 91-ish, A-E wing, that Charlotte Garfield had passed away, she was, at first, confused, then sad, then confused again. She thought Charlotte had died decades ago in a big fire at some horse glue factory. Later Estelle thought it was a horseshoe factory and not a fire but a tornado and that it was Charlotte’s sister Emily who had been killed.

Charlotte did have a sister named Emily and one named Anne, but both of them are alive as per the Death Notice.

According to a scrapbook we found among the things Estelle’s grandchildren left in the driveway when they dropped her off several years ago, Estelle and Charlotte were very good friends when they were young. Estelle smiled as she flipped through the pages, stopping here and there to point out photos of her and Charlotte dressed as men, or working at the bank downtown during the war.

“We had a lot of fun, yeah we did,” Estelle said. “Charlotte and I used to go on double dates with the young men who got rejected by the Army. Why, we rejected them too.”

Estelle recalled Charlotte as a bright woman who loved a cigar and a glass of whiskey after sex with her dead husband.

“She kept that man around for years,” Estelle said. “I always thought he smelled funny.”

That about does it for Estelle’s remembrance of Charlotte Garfield.