Anna Joan Timko
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Anna Joan Timko - Born on October 24, 1917 in Dixonville, Indiana County, Pennsylvania. She was the second oldest daughter of Joseph John Timko Sr. and Anna Veronica Berish.
Description
Anna was stout of build who stood about 5 foot 8 (approx) inches in height. She had brown hair and brown eyes.
Early Years
Having 7 younger brothers and sisters, Anna, along with her sister Mary, spent much of her youth helping her mother Anna raise her siblings.
It was during or just just before 1933 that my Aunt Anna Joan developed Sydenham’s chorea, or as it was known in those days, St. Vitus’ Dance. This disorder is characterized by rapid, uncoordinated jerking movements primarily affecting the face, hands and feet. It’s the result of a childhood infection know as streptococcus, or more commonly known as strep or strep throat. It has also been associated with rheumatic fever.
The disease lies dormant, generally occurring up to six months after the initial infection. For reasons unknown, it usually occurs in young females, most under the age of 16 years of age. It’s characterized by uncontrollable movement of hands, arms, legs and facial muscles. This results in a deterioration of handwriting skills, slowed cognition, facial grimacing, fidgetiness and hypotonia, or what’s more commonly known as “floppy baby syndrome,” from a loss of muscle tone. While the disease usually resolves itself in a few months, Anna’s full recovery would take longer.
While I’m sure that my Baba was familiar with most childhood diseases, the onset of this disease must have frightened the entire family. Watching Anna’s arms and legs twitch uncontrollably and being unable to help her child must have made her feel helpless. However, she nursed young daughter as best she could until the disease passed. Eventually my Aunt Anna regained full control of her limbs.
While Anna's health eventually returned, her future goals in life would be forever be altered. The records show that my aunt had completed the ninth grade. However, Anna would have probably been out of school for several months, maybe as long a six months, making repeating the ninth grade her only academic option. Socially, that would have meant all her classmates would have moved on to the next grade level and she, in her mind, would be left behind. Something no child would want to face.
Whether for that, or some other, reason, Anna, with the approval of my Dzedo and Baba, dropped out of during the mid-term of her last year in junior high school . While this was not the ideal option, it was not unusual for children of this period to quit school after the eighth grade. In the meantime, I suppose her taking a job outside the home not only offered her a future but the additional income would help in the family's situation.
Education
Anna's formal education was completed by the ninth grade.
Religion
Anna was baptized into the Catholic faith on October 30, 1917 in Clymer, Indiana County, Pennsylvania.
Family Years
Married Michael Joseph Politsky on January 31, 1938 at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church in Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio. The couple had one child: a boy Robert Politsky.
The couple had only one child;
- Robert Michael Politsky
Residences
During the Anna's years in Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio, she lived with family in, rented or owned a total of ten houses on the southwest side of the city.
- 1xx Parkman Road [Note: The exact address of the family's first rental house is not known. My paternal Aunt Emma (Timko) Burin said that while driving with her mother Anna, Anna pointed to a small collection of houses next to the railroad tracks on Parkman and said that was the house the family lived in when they first arrived in the city. At the time, it never occurred to Emma to ask exactly which of the house had been the family's first home. However, from city records, the address would have to have been either 160, 170 or 178 Parkman Road, hence the 1xx designation.]
- 985 Hunter Street NW
- 1437 Tod Avenue SW
- 487 Fourth Street
- 481 Oriole Place SW
- 770 Fourth Street
- 2051 Wilson Avenue
- 2046 Freemont Avenue
- 4050 Kibler-Toot Road in Leavittsburg, Trumbull County, Ohio
Working Years
Homemaker for 47 years.
Personal Life[edit | edit source]
She loved crocheting, needlepoint, quilting and baking.
Death[edit | edit source]
Anna died from brain cancer on September 7, 1985 at Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren, Trumbull Co, Ohio. She was buried on September 10, 1985 at All Souls Cemetery in Cortland, Trumbull County, Ohio.