Elizabeth Louise Crossland Matricaria crossed the bar in Avon, CT on May 19, 2019 at the age of 101 years and 7 months.
She was an unwilling participant in her own demise and often declared she wanted to stay around to see what was going to happen next.
Elizabeth was born at home in Ansonia, CT and was the first child of Minnie Mathilda Bukofske Crossland and Alfred Clifton Crossland. She was educated in the Ansonia public school system and at the Federal Community College in New Haven, before graduating with highest honors from the Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing in 1939.
For more than 30 years, Elizabeth enjoyed a varied career as a Registered Nurse, including working as a brain surgery scrub nurse for Dr. William German at Yale-New Haven Medical Center, and later as a private intensive care nurse, giving loving and professional care to patients of all religions, ethnicities, races, and sexual orientation.
A simple listing of her professional accomplishments would not suffice to explain the woman Elizabeth was. Her personal family experiences were transformative. Elizabeth’s mother, Minnie, was one of eleven children, born to German immigrants, who knew plenty about the struggles faced by people desperately striving for success and acceptance in a new land. When Minnie was 16 years old she married Alfred Crossland, (who was raised in a foster family because his English immigrant parents were unable to care for him). The Crosslands made their home in Ansonia, CT, where Alfred worked his way up to become foreman of the welding department at The Farrel-Birmingham Corporation.
Some of Elizabeth’s earliest childhood memories were of life during the depression years, when it seemed everyone was struggling financially. She recalled that her mother never turned away hobos, the name given to itinerant workers who passed through town on the trains.
These were men, down on their luck, who needed human compassion. Minnie’s house was marked as a place where a hot meal could be found and often a fresh loaf of bread to travel with.
In Boston, Elizabeth completed her professional training as a care-giver and married her high school sweetheart, Dorio Anthony Matricaria, the son of Italian immigrants. Dorio, who had graduated from Yale University with a degree in English, aspired to work for the leading Boston newspaper of the day, but was told, “Italians need not apply.”
The couple returned to Connecticut, Elizabeth began her nursing career, Dorio went on to more advanced academic degrees, and together they raised three daughters.
From the beginning, they instilled in their children the ideal of America as a melting pot. They taught their children that all are created equal and that all deserved a fair chance to achieve their potential.
Throughout her life, Elizabeth maintained high standards of care and concern for all of humanity, and it disturbed her greatly to see anyone act with willful malice or cruelty.
Elizabeth desperately wanted to live long enough to see an end to racial and ethnic bigotry in this nation she so dearly loved; unfortunately, even though she lived to be almost 102, it was not long enough.
The names and ethnicities have changed, but the situation remains the same. It grieved her so.
At the advanced age of 80 she began research on the history of her home town, Ansonia, CT, with the intention of writing a book to chronicle its history and the life of its founder, Anson Phelps.
She achieved her goal and more, adding a second book of her personal memoirs.
On her 96th birthday she celebrated the publication of her books, Anson’s Glory and A Backward Glance, with a big party attended by her family and friends. At the end of the day she pronounced that the party was “better than a funeral” because she got to be present and engage with all her guests and to hear all the accolades.
Elizabeth was greatly appreciative of all the friends and family members who endeavored to stay in touch with her while she was alive. Her funeral services will be private.
The family requests that anyone who might have been inclined to devote some time and energy to attend her services, instead devote that time and energy to perform an act of kindness for an immigrant stranger.
The biggest tragedy of Elizabeth’s life was the death of her husband, Dorio in 1982. She was also predeceased by her parents, Minnie and Alfred Crossland, her sister, Grace Andrews Crossland Spurr, and her granddaughter Rachel Alice Petz Dowd.
Her surviving descendants are her daughters, Elizabeth Doreen Matricaria Hutchinson of Bridgton, ME, Aalia Kusmis (birth name Gail Matricaria) of Sanbornton, NH, and Sharon Matricaria Kelly of Oak Bluffs, MA; her grandchildren, John Hutchinson of Ankeny, IA, and Anne Parent of Perkinsville, VT; her great grandchildren, Sarah Hutchinson, Matthew Hutchinson, James Dowd, David Dowd, Kendra Dowd, Bhodi Parent and Dylan Parent.
The Jenkins King & Malerba Funeral Home, 12 Franklin St., Ansonia, CT (http://www.jenkinskingfh.com) has been privileged with the arrangements.
