Grandma first met Grandpa when she was 16, or around 1940. She was working in a dress shop in Indianapolis called Miller Wool. She made $18/ week working as a cashier.

One afternoon at the dress shop, Grandma’s friend and co-worker, Betty, received a visit from two young soldiers who were on leave from the Navy. One of those soldiers was Grandpa. Betty introduced the two young men to Grandma, and the guys asked what time the girls got off work and whether they’d like to go out. They arranged a double-date for that night, but Grandpa was paired with Betty while the other guy was supposed to be Grandma’s date. Grandma didn’t like the other guy at all and demanded that she get Grandpa or she wouldn’t go. Betty conceded, and Grandma got the handsome Don for her date.

The foursome went riding around and parked at a filling station to talk and listen to the radio. Grandma liked Grandpa instantly but felt frustrated because Grandpa and Betty kept talking and leaving her out. She threatened to leave, but Grandpa begged her to stay and shifted his attention toward her. They sat in the car all night long and talked. Grandma was smitten by him.

Great-grandma Howard had been out looking for Grandma that night, worried about where she was. Grandma lied the next day and told her mother that she had spent the night at Betty’s, and Great-grandma Howard believed her.

Grandpa’s leave was short, and soon he had to go back to training in Sheep’s Head Bay, in NY, and, from there, off to fight in WWII. Grandma went to Union Station to see him off, and she says their goodbye was just like something you’d see in the movie “Pearl Harbor.” Grandpa was gone for seven years, and for some time the two wrote and kept in touch. But after a while, they both moved on with their lives and lost touch. Grandma had given up on him. And in 1948, she had her first child, Teresa Marlene, though she had no lasting relationship with Teresa’s birth-father.

One Sunday, after a night of dancing and drinking, Grandma’s brother Bill asked her if they could go see Betty. Grandma had a terrible headache from the night before and didn’t want to go, but as the day wore on, Bill kept begging and she started to feel a bit better. So, just before it got dark on Sunday night, they got on the bus and headed to Betty’s house.

The bus stopped on the corner by the gas station where Grandpa and Grandma had sat all night talking, seven years before. As Grandma looked out the window, possibly thinking about that special night so many years ago, she saw him walk in front of the bus headlights. And then he stepped onto the bus. She couldn’t believe it. He noticed her right away and as he approached her, his first words were, “Are you married?”

She thought she would lose him when he found out about baby Teresa, but he accepted the baby immediately, and the very night she told him about her secret, they decided to get married. They were married on December 23^rd, 1949.

If you have any stories you’d like to include here, send them to me, and I’ll be glad to post them. In the meantime, I’m going to try to interview Grandma periodically too.