Albertine Pirmer

Albertine Pirmer was a nurse who cared for Frieda Dinkelspiel Silverman when she was dying and afterwards acted as a companion to Alice Silverman.

Albertine was born, 18 April 1886,  the youngest of at least 8 children, in NYC, to Johan and Kate Pirmer. Both her parents were from Austria. Johan was a mechanic. The family moved to San Francisco. She was sent at some point to the Fred Finch Orphanage in Oakland, CA (3670 Peralta Avenue, Fruitvale district) with her sister Katie and brother Carl. 

She and her sister Hermina, graduated from the St. Francis Memorial Hospital around 1916 with a degree in nursing.

One of Albertine’s brothers, Charles Henry, was an ardent motorist and took Alice and Albertine out in his car on occasion, in 1915. In 1946, his wife Minnie was killed in a car he was driving, when he hurtled off of Skyline Boulevard, plunging down 500 feet. And in 1951, his son Charles William was injured severely in a car accident when he failed to negotiate a turn near Hunter’s Point, in SF. I’m glad Alice survived their auto excursions!

Albertine left the Silverman household in the spring of 1916 after Harold made some accusations about her, to go back to nursing. 

On July 15, 1916 in her diary, Alice Silverman says that Albertine told her of her engagement to Mr. Plato. Alice called her the next day and asked if she had been forced into it. Albertine replied “not exactly”, it was her mother’s wish and Albertine thought she would be happy. She married George Jacob Plato a few months later, on Sept 16, 1916 in San Francisco and had one son, George Jacob Jr. in 1920. 

On July 23, 1917, Alice wrote in her diary: “

I had a talk with Albertine over the phone. She seemed very sad. Her sister is ill {Hermina or Katherine} and her brother has joined an ambulance unit and is going to France {this was Charles Henry Pirmer – in the 91^st Division 364^th Ambulance Company}. She confided in me and practically admitted that she was not happy. What she said has no right to be written down.”

Albertine died 2 days before I was born, August 14, 1955.