Sylvia's Bank Robber Story

Legend has it that my ninety-something year old aunt, Sylvia, my dad's only sister, was working in a bank once when a robber came in and handed her a note. He demanded that she turn over all the money in her drawer.

As the story goes, while Sylvia, tiny as a leprechaun and just as fiesty, filled a bag with money, a security guard fired at the bank robber, missed, and the bullet grazed Sylvia's ear. As her granddaughter, Bonnie, tells it, Sylvia said she could "feel the breeze of the bullet."

Never being one to let a bullet, or the breeze of one, stop her, when the bandit returned in two weeks to pull off what he thought would be another successful heist, he was greeted by a fainting teller and Sylvia who handed him another bag of money admonishing him never to return again which, by the way, he never did.

And, as Sylvia's bank story shows, leprechauns can sometimes be of the female persuasionm and courage come in small packages.

This is but one of many stories from Sylvia who, at 96, is said to be writing her memoirs. At the link is a photo of Aunt Sylvia and Uncle Ellie celebrating their 75th wedding anniversary last March, being guided by their granddaughter, Bonnie Reunis. http://www.tcpalm.com/photos/2011/mar/29/296225/ )