Mom and dad: years of love, loss and new life
My mom and dad were deeply in love with each other, but they had occasional fights. I remember one incident in particular that I will call: “The Gift of the Magi”.
My dad kept his loose change in his pocket, not in any kind of container. When I put my legs on the stool, some of the change would spill out and sink under the sides of the cushion. I saw Mom going under the cushion and putting the change in a jar that she hid in the back of a kitchen cabinet. My dad finally started to miss his change. One day, the first of October, the day before my dad’s birthday, he accused my mom of stealing it.
My mom got very angry and then she disappeared into her bedroom and came out with a small box which she placed in my father’s hands. “Open it,” she said. He did and there was a beautiful wristwatch. He turned and hurried down to the basement with a bunch of monkeys to soak in the tub. He followed her slowly. After a few minutes, he was nosy, so I went downstairs. I found my mother sitting on my father’s lap, on a dusty old wooden chair, and they were both crying. My dad would say over and over “I love you, I love you, I’m sorry!”
He was seven years old in 1939 when World War II began and almost thirteen when it ended. Grandma King’s health began to decline after 1940. They sold the house next door, moved to New York near Grandma’s relatives for a short time, then moved back to an apartment in downtown Easthampton, eventually building a second house two lots down the street. of his first. Gram developed what we then called “hardening of the arteries in the brain,” now called “dementia” or “Alzheimer’s disease.” It cost Gramp a terrible price. Finally, our doctor told my mother that Gram had to be admitted to the State Hospital to save my grandfather’s life. She entered the hospital in mid-April 1946, and six weeks later she was dead. There was a big hole in my heart!
Grandpa sold his house and came to live with us. We all wanted it. My mother gained a very grateful intern father. She would just mention in dinner table conversation to my dad that an appliance needed repair or possibly replacement and Grandpa would go out and buy it for her. He had a nice military officer’s pension plus some savings, and he loved giving gifts.
He helped out in the garden, cleaning the chicken coop, collecting eggs, weeding the garden, and doing other light yard work. Once a month on payday, which was the last Friday, he would go into town to cash his military pension check, meet my dad after work for a couple of beers, and then drive home with my dad. for dinner. Immediately after the meal, grandfather’s wallet came out and he gave an allowance to each of his grandchildren, the amount varied according to age, so I benefited. Five dollars for me, three for Dolores and two for Frank!
My last sister, Celeste, was born in October 1944. My dad wanted to join the Sea Bees, but my mom didn’t want to do any of that. So, five years after Frank, my mom decided it was time to have her baby “out of the draft,” and I got a baby sister! My dad was furious that his friends were going to the Sea Bees. But since I was doing important defense work making intricate little wooden boxes used to ship sensitive bomb sights, plus my mother’s appeal to the draft board, of which my uncle Leon, dad’s brother, was member, was deferred for one year. When the year ended in October 1945, the war was over!
My high school years flew by with 4-H club events, Grange events after fourteen, dance classes, and performances in musicals. Those were busy but happy years.