Dear Stagl Family (And there are too many to name, did not want to risk leaving anyone out):

I was sad to hear of Aunt Winne's passing, and sorry for all of you, for the loss that you will carry with you for many years to come...  By far, losing my Mom was the most painful loss I have endured in my life...  (Losing my Dad, and even recently, was definitely not easy [I am definitely not over it, by a stretch...], but there is something different about losing a Mom...) 

I was really surprised (almost astonished) that Aunt Winne had a Facebook page and actually wrote on it!! well into her 90's!  So I felt fortunate that I had the chance to reconnect with her... intermittently on and off, for a few years even...  I really don't remember going to Aunt Winne & Uncle Frank's home past the age of maybe 11ish?  I remember going to the Bronx or Brooklyn? once, to Unle Sig and Aunt Bea's, and Allen was home that day.... but not the girls,. I don't think?  And being the youngest, Elizabeth (oldest) was just getting ready for college, and Kathy and Dianne were probably, also in college already...  So I do remember going to your home up until the tween years... and your Mom cooking feasts at Christmas time.. And some years Uncle Sig, Aunt Bea, Allen (?), Cindy & Robbie would all be there, too...  and I loved the smell of the salt air... and the occasions when we somehow snuck off the grounds to see the shore/marina area with the boats (a big deal coming from the mountains in the country... although it was really just Rockland County, 1.25? hours away)... Just the sand in your driveway in between the stones, and the docked boat in the driveway, was exciting to me...  The organ or piano? in your living room, and Peter playing for us...  I think we even sang songs one year... And I'll never forget being mesmerized by Sharon's long braids...  And then..., the cousins moved away...  Uncle Sig and Aunt Bea had already? or were just moving to, Harrisburg, PA... and then later on to Las Cruces... And, the children were all off to college...  Allen had moved 'far away' upstate (my interpretation from what I remembered being told), and Cindy & Robbie moved up north too, for college...  And then I was never really told why we weren't going to see Uncle Frank and Aunt Winne anymore at Christmas... "Everyone was busy..."  And then I heard Uncle Frank became ill...  And I knew it was tragic for the family... but didn't know any of the details... (Classic Stagl communications... tell them nothing...)  And then somehow, I don't remember seeing the cousins again... for many years... Except... we still saw Carol & Bruce and Aunt Vicky/Uncle Woody... at Thanksgiving on Staten Island on in Nanuet... until Uncle Woody got sick... and even after that, we still saw them until my parents moved to Florida.  So... fast forward, many moons pass... and it is the mid 1980's-ish...  I live in Long Beach, CA, and I'm married now...  (And BTW, I did see many of the cousins at my wedding in 1983 at where else? the north shore of Long Island, hand picked by me...  I guess those memories stuck with me...)  I get a call from my Mom (maybe she and my Dad were in FL by then?) telling me Aunt Winne is on her way to the far east somewhere... (Hong Kong, China, Japan, maybe a cruise to multiple countries?) and she has a long layover at LAX, before her departure...  And... she would love for me to visit her at the airport...  I was like.., What??  I had no idea, how old Aunt Winne was back then, and I remembered thinking how sad it was, that she was traveling alone... And I wondered somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind, if I, could ever do that?  Then I worried about what I would say or talk about, with her... I believe I was ~28 (haven't seen her since I am 11??), and Aunt Winne was mid 60's (pretty close to ancient? or so I thought at the time...)   But, I can assure you, there was no getting out of this...  I was GOING...  (One year, my ex-husband and I flew to Tuscon from Manhattan [before moving to CA] to visit friends going for their Master's degrees...  And My Mother was incensed that I wasn't to Las Cruces to see Aunt Bea and Uncle Sig... 10 hrs away, in another state.. while were were there, from Friday to Sunday.  And for years after, I have still regretted not going.)  "IT," was only awkward for about, a minute...  And then this group... of smart, educated, world class women travelers were chattering away, and they were even fun!  They were confident Women, who knew their way around, they were women... who traveled the World...  Aunt Winne, was not alone at all...  (Background... It was a dining room with linen table cloths at a nice restaurant outside the terminal area.  It was like going to your first Junior League Meeting (or even High Tea on the Titanic) where everyone is dressed in perfectly manicured suits, fine jewelry, china plates and goblets... and had a little air of stuffiness...)  But this was one luncheon, with a Woman and her Friends in their 60's and 70's that was one of those times in your life; where you are exposed to another realm and you now, SEE... the way things can be in the world, that you didn't even know existed...  And I believe, in retrospect, that Aunt Winne's service in the Navy prepared her to be independent and strong, no matter what life's curve balls were thrown her way.  So from that day forward, Aunt Winne served as a role model to me...  I have lived through divorce and long term physical/sometimes emotional separation. from my nuclear family...  I have since traveled to many countries, via land, sea, and air; in groups, solo (totally alone), and have enjoyed every trip, met people from all walks of life, have had reunions with some, etc. 

Rest in peace Aunt Winne...  You deserve a rest, after the full life and many challenges that you faced, fought off, lived with, and through, along the way...  You will live forever in the memories of your children, granchildren, and in the stories told to all of your great grandchildren...

Love & Hugs to the entire Family,  Your Cousin, 2nd Cousin, 3rd? Cousin, Susan (AKA Susie)