Treasured Memories

When our son Tony married Lucy, they went to live in Strathmore with Lucy's parents for a short while and later moved into a cute apartment. In 1973 they decided to come back to San Diego.

They came to live with us in our home at the Bayview Mobile Home Park. My mother lived by herself in a mobile home across from us and they later moved in with her.

Tony started working at a men's clothing store and later got a job as a bus driver for the San Diego Transit. They soon bought a lovely two story home in Lakeside and Lucy worked at the California First Bank in San Diego.

On April 1st, 1977 our Precious Grand Daughter was born and they named her "Andrea". When she was a few months old, Lucy went back to work at the bank and I had the honor and privilege to take care of her while her Mommy was at work.

We had a very nice home in Alpine on two and a half acres set on a hill overlooking the Indian Reservation across the highway about a half mile away and from our drive way we had a view of the ocean.

I have so many sweet memories of those hours I spent with my "Little Precious" grand daughter. I remember having a cassette of all the songs that Julie Andrews sang in the movie "Sound of Music" and our little Andrea would sing all the songs along with it and never missed a beat. She was so cute!!She knew all the words to the songs. She never ceased to amaze me. Then I would turn on the TV to watch Jack LaLane's exercise progrom and Andrea would do all the exercises he did.

We had an adorable Golden Retreiver that we named "Cleo". She was such a calm dog and whenever Andrea came near her she would roll over on her back and Andrea would sit on the dog's stomach and pet her.

One morning I went out in the garage to start my laundry. Our washer and dryer were out there and I heard a click, so I went to open the kitchen door and it was locked. Andrea pushed in the lock button and I panicked and thought "Oh my God, how am I going to get back in the house and my little grand daughter is all alone in there". I told her to turn the door knob but she couldn't do it, so I went out of the garage side door and walked over to the sliding glass door that was between the kitchen and dining room and I called her to come by the door and asked her to get the chair that was up against the kitchen counter, pull it down real slow and lay it on the floor. Then I told her to drag it over to the door and pick the chair up again. She did everything perfectly! Then I asked her to get up on the chair and pull the door lock up and push the door open. Then she unlocked the screen door and I was able to come back in the house.I took her in my arms and loved her all up and praised her for following all my instructions.

Andrea was such a joy to take care of and it broke my heart when Tony and Lucy decided to move back to Strathmore. When they came over to say goodbye before they left, I sat Andrea on the kitchen counter hugging and kissing her but I couldn't hold back the tears.

After about two weeks of crying and missing my little precious grand daughter, I couldn't handle it anymore. I called my former boss at Walker Scott and asked if she would rehire me and bless her heart, she did. I couldn't bear to be at home alone every day without my Andrea

I remember Lucy telling me that when I sent a little note to Andrea, she started reading "Dear Little Precious" Andrea said, "Oh, I know who it is".

I enjoyed all those days you spent with me Andrea, and now thar you're all grown up, married to an especially nice young man, I wish you and Chris all the best in life.

God bless you both with many, many happy years together.

Happy 30th birthday, My Precious !

Family History Chapter 2

Our home in Detroit while I was just a child was next door to a Polish family that had two little girls about my age. I remember being in our back yard and they would be in thier yard and neither of us could speak English, so we would communicate by making sign language. When we became more friendly we would go to each others houses and we would play together. I soon learned to speak Polish quite fluently and sometimes when I would come home I would tell my Mom all that went on at our neighbor's house.

When my mother finally put me in kindergarten, I was almost 7 years old. I couldn't speak English and was so embarrassed, but I asked the teacher if I could go to the bathroom, in italian, she must have understood me and let me go. When I left the room I ran outside and went home. My mother was shocked that I was able to find my way home.

I finally learned to speak some English and after starting public school, my mother had me transfered to a Catholic school and I was put back a grade. After a short time, my mother's sister Rose's son Gregory, known as "Gorie" came to Detroit from New York to tell my parents about the Church of Jesus Christ. When my mother joined the church, she had me transferred back to a public school. Well, guess what? I was put back another grade. What was this anyway, don't the cathlic and public schools want anyone transferring back and forth?

We lived in a nice two story house on Cameron Street. We had a nice entry room that led into the living room and into the kitchen, a dining room and three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and a full size basement where my mother would do the laundry and canning of tomatoes and sauces of various kinds. We had a nice back yard where my dear father would plant all kinds of fruits and vegetables. He also kept many pigeons in the garage.

One block away from our home was the public school I ended up in, it was called "Dwyer School" and went up to the 8th grade. I would have loved to go to High school but because of my age I didn't want to go anymore so I ended up working at a five and dime store in a town about 5 miles away from home. I would take the bus to and from work. Sometimes I would work till 9:00P.M. This one night when I got off the bus I crossed the street, which I always did to walk along the side of the school fence, because at the corner where the bus stopped there was a large apartment house and the doorways to the entrances were always open and I was afraid to walk past it by myself.

This one night while I was walking home along the school fence, I kept hearing a noise like paper was blowing in the wind. It wasn't windy at all, it was a nice summer night. I kept ignoring the sound but it kept getting louder and louder, so as I turned to see where this paper was, I saw a man coming out of the apartment toward me. Directly across the street from where I was, lived an Italian family and as I ran across, my legs got so weak that I thought my legs were going to buckle up
under me, but I made it to their door and I was able to call my mom. She came to get me carrying a large rolling pin under her arm. Thank God, we made it home safely. One of our Lord's angels must have been watching over me.

A few months before that happened, my Father was walking on that same side of the street going home, he was attacked by two men, one had his arm around his neck while the other one took his wallet. Thank God they didn't harm him. That area had gotten very bad.

My brother Bill's father in law bought a two story home on the east side of Detroit so that we could move away from that area. So Bill and his family moved on the first floor and my parents and I moved into the second floor.

Allergies or Virus ?

Well, here it is, two weeks later and I'm finally starting to feel better. What in the world hit me and a few days later my husband got it too. Congestion, coughing, watery and burning eyes and etc. Seems like so many people have had these same symptoms. Must be something in the air. Thank God, it's finally come to an end. Hope we have a happy and healthy summer. Hate being confined to the house and afraid to be around anyone for fear of spreading the germ. Missed not being able to be in Church for two weeks. But I thank God for everyone's prayers.

Birthday !

Wow, I can't believe that 82 years have gone by and I'm entering my 83rd today.
Where have all the years gone? It's like a look out the window. I can remember when I was young and thought about the ages of 40 or 50 and would think, "Oh, that's a long ways away". Well folks, they flew past and now I'm entering into the mid eighties. Well all I can say is, "Thank you Lord for everything that I've been blessed with", The companion I have had for the past 60 years, the two wonderful sons we've been blessed with, Tony and Steve, and the five grandchildren we have. Three grand daughters and two grand sons that we were also blessed with through marriage. When our son married and adopted his wife's son Nicholas of only about one and a half years old, and our grand daughter Andrea's husband Chris. What a true BLESSING! And along with all these blessings, I want to thank God for the "Dearest" daughter in law any one could ever ask for, and that's our son Tony's wife Lucy.

Well, only the Lord knows what's in store for the future. We're all in His hands.
May our dear Father in Heaven bless each and every one of you that will be reading this BLOG.