Comedy - Helen Robertson Dannhauser (1888-1973)

Aunt Nell (second from the right) and unidentified friends

This week I’m writing about another Robertson Relative, Helen Robertson Dannhauser, or “Aunt Nell”. While I wouldn’t call her life a Comedy, I’ve heard several amusing stories involving her over the years.

Helen was the sister of my great grandmother, Alice Robertson Crawford. Alice was the youngest and Helen the second youngest of the “first family” (their father remarried and had several more children after their mother’s death). Helen worked as a nurse and, like her sister Alice moved to New York from Scotland. She married a patient of hers, Otto Dannhauser, but he did not live very long after their marriage.

When Aunt Nell was getting older my grandparents, who lived nearby did a lot to help her. They would buy Aunt Nell milk and other groceries. Nell became convinced that milk in cartons was poisoned. She would only take milk that came from glass bottles, like the milk man used to deliver. However, times had changed and milk no longer came in glass bottles. My grandparents tried to convince Nell that it would be fine to drink the carton milk, but eventually gave up. My grandfather came up with a plan. He found some old glass bottles and poured milk from the cartons into the bottles. Nell was pleased to get the bottled milk and did not notice any difference so my grandfather continued delivering her “bottled milk”, washing the bottles and refilling them with the carton milk regularly.