This post was for last Wednesday. However, due to the passing of Senator Kennedy on August 26 and my vacation in the Midwest with dial-up Internet access, I decided to wait until today to post it.
In 1944, she was 21 years old.
A new bride traveling across the country to meet her in-laws.
It was also the year of the first presidential election in which she could vote — the year FDR won the presidency for an unprecedented fourth term. She wanted to vote for him, and because it had been impressed upon her that she should not take voting for granted, she was at a crossroads.
On August 26, 1920, women won the right to vote.
She was born in 1923.
The woman I am referring to is my Great-Grandma B or as she signs her name, Cecilia Beato. It is hard to believe that a woman who is 86 years old (which she reminds you about all the time) never lived in this country when women could not vote. She was the first generation to be born in America. She was an only child. She will tell you she always voted in every election except the first one she could.
And that still bothers her.
When I went to graduate school in 2005 for politics and public policy, Great-Grandma B sent me a letter about the election in 1944 and women voting. When we visited with her last week, I tried to have her retell the story, but at 86, things got lost along the way.
Cecilia Mezner married Ralph Beato on November 5, 1944 — two days before the presidential election. He was born and raised in Philadelphia and she in Chicago. They were married in Chicago and planned to live there and raise a family.
After their wedding, they drove across the country from Chicago to Philly. She was to meet her in-laws and the extended family before he returned to World War II in the South Pacific. I can't even imagine taking on this task at the young age of 21.
On the day of the election, she was in the car. She did not vote. She wanted to vote, but they could not figure out how to vote and travel at the same time. She sacrificed this vote for her marriage to Ralph.
In 2005, when she sent me the letter describing this she was still upset ... 61 years later. She was also quick to tell me that she votes in every election and has never taken the right to vote for granted. Now, how she votes I am not sure, but I would assume she still votes Democratic (although I can't see this current Minnesota resident voting for Al Franken).
Today, so many young women take voting for granted.
They don't see the point.
They don't think it matters.
It does.
We need to remind them of the fact that 90 years ago women could not vote. We need to write down the stories of our grandmothers, our great-grandmothers and pass them along to the next generation. We, as women, have an obligation to pass along these gifts so that voting is never taken for granted.
Thanks, Great-Grandma B, your story has been passed along to the next Beato generation.
