1920’s
I had a
special picture of me on my kiddy-kart when I was two years old and I always
carried this picture in my wallet. One
time when I looked for it, I could not find it, so I decided to write about
this picture and that is what gave me the idea to write a story about my life.
Mom and Dad were married on July 22,
1922. I was born on May 19, 1924 in
Corning, NY in the apartment of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Kleckner, friends of my parents. They lived in an upstairs apartment on Market
Street. This is also where I got my old
metal Santa Claus bank. When I was
almost a year old, I was crawling around on the floor when I spotted this Santa
Claus under their stove. Mr. Kleckner
told me I could have it if I could reach it, so I climbed under there and got
it. It turned out to be an old metal
Santa Claus bank and it had Indian Head pennies inside of it.
When I was growing up, I lived on Beach
Alley in Corning. I had a special friend
and her name was Jenny Burke. She was
the same age as me and she lived on the corner of Conhocton Street, almost
across the street from me. Our Moms took
us out for walks in our carriages. I
moved away when we were both 4 years old and I remember doing a funny, foolish
thing. I bent over and thumbed my nose
at Jenny and I had no idea why I did this, unless it was because we were
separating and didn’t know how to say good-bye.
My parents and I went to live in the home of
Carrie Mack. She was really old. One thing I remember about her house was one
time when my parents were working in the garden. I was in another part of the garden being
sneaky. I pulled up all of the corn, one
plant at a time and threw them on the ground.
I have no idea why I did this.
Nevertheless, I got a whipping for being so bad. I can tell you, I never thought about pulling
the corn from the garden again.
Another story I’d like to tell is about the
crazy lady who lived in our area. Her
name was Mrs. John Rice. When she would
get upset over something, she would walk down the road screaming at the top of
her lungs while she carried a club. You
could hear her coming a long time before she would get in sight of our house,
which gave my mom time to scoop me up and out of harm’s way.
I started school in a little country school
outside of Rathbone, NY. It was a
one-room schoolhouse with a pot-bellied stove, heated by wood. My first teacher was Mrs. Burdette Beers. She took me to school in her car and
sometimes when it was a sunny day, I would walk home after school with her
niece. It was only two or three
miles. We would go home and pick
gooseberries, which are the berries with the prickles on them.
We moved to a little brown house on the
Addison Road, which we rented from Viola Edminster. She had a boy, Hanford, and two girls, Julia
and Miriam. Miriam was married to Ray
Danninburg and Hanford and Julia were single.
There were a lot of things that happened in
the little brown house, even though we only lived there a couple of years. One of the things that happened to me was when
I was 5, I was jumping on the bed when I came down on a can. I will always have that scar to remember this
by. Shortly after that, I thought my
parents were going to leave me in Addison, so I ran to meet them. My Dad put on the brakes, but I didn’t
stop. I had a nice hole in my leg and
another on my knee and they were both infected at the same time.
Also when I was 5, I was also introduced to
death in a way I will never forget. I
saw Aunt Mary Cooper, lying with a dishpan on top of her body right where she
fell. She had a heart attack, fell, and
died. I don’t remember when it happened
or who found her. All I remember is
somebody called my Dad to come home from the Foundry. I can still see her body lying there with the
pan on top of her, just like it was yesterday.
I remember some of the funeral. I
know they had a vault they put her in and they had to wait until the weather
was warmer to put her in the ground. I
do know she was buried in the Hope Cemetery in South Corning. We used to go to the Memorial Day Parade
every year while my Dad was alive and then go to put flowers on Aunt Mary’s
grave. My thrill of going to the
cemetery was walking on the stone wall.
Another memory from that little brown house
has to do with my mother and Freddy Brown, my cousin. I remember the time Freddy didn’t want to go
to school, so his Aunt Hazel, my Mom, had to help him along with a switch. Every time he backed off from her, the switch
would go into action on his pants. The
school was three miles from home. The school was changed into a home and
changed to the opposite side of the road where Mr. and Mrs. Richard Lewis
lived.
I went to
stay with my grandparents, Bert and Grace Rouse. I used to go upstairs to sleep. We stayed there because Hanford and Mildred
were going to be married and needed the house we were living in. When Mildred was working on getting the house
read for them to move into, I was napping in the house. One of her friends was there helping her and
saw me sleeping and asked, “Who is that blonde cutie?” Of course, they were talking about me!
1930’s
The Depression hit and Viola Edminster sold
my Dad some land with the purpose to build a home on. Of course, the Depression in the 1930’s hit
our area and people lost their jobs. My
Dad didn’t lose his, he just had his hours cut back. So, my home was turned into a garage, which
we lived in while the house was being built.
I had a swing put up so I could enjoy it while I was little. We had a coal bin in front of our garage and
only had Maftex(insulation board) on the walls.
When I was a teenager, my bedroom walls were the first walls to get
wallpaper on them.
Another exciting thing that happened in our
family was when some strangers were driving by and noticed the YEAPLES name,
just like theirs. He stopped to ask questions about the name being alike and if
they were possibly related to us. To
their shock, Dad found Orange Yeaples, a cousin, which he hadn’t seen in many
years, since they were very young, if they had even met at all. My Dad and his brother were separated when
they were ages nine and eleven. The boys
were separated when their mother, my grandmother, died with black diphtheria
and had to be buried in the middle of the night. My Dad was raised by his Aunt Mary Cooper and
he always wondered what happened to his brother. When we went to see the Yeaples family in Ohio,
they were overjoyed.
I remember playing Huckle Buckle Bean Stalk
and Eye Spy with Viola Edminster. Also,
when I was out in the back yard working with Viola, I would say how much my
back aches and she’d come back at me with, “At your age? I am in my seventies
and look at me!”
I used to go eat lunch with my
great-grandparents, Daniel and Lula Lackey.
They lived on Tuscarora Street in Addison, NY. He was the father of my grandmother. I was only six years old when they passed
away, but I didn’t get excited. I didn’t
cry like I did when Aunt Mary Cooper died.
Maybe it bothered me more because of how Aunt Mary passed away.
I remember going to their home to spend the
night and I could see the shadows that came off the walls from the gas
lights. One time, while we were visiting
friends, I remember I was put on the bed while I was sleeping. When I woke up, I didn’t know where I was and
all I could see was the shadows on the walls that were moving up and down,
coming from the kerosene lamps. I was
scared watching those shadows move and started crying. My mom and dad were playing cards with
friends, but came to my rescue, of course.
We moved to Addison Road in 1931. Mom brought a new baby home to live with
us. She was sick and would not have
lived if dad didn’t have a soft spot in his heart. He consented to bring her home and give her
the help she needed to get well. We had
her until she was 16 months old. Her
name was Genevieve Brown, daughter of Elsie Brown, my mother’s sister. We became so attached to her in the 16 months
we had her and then reality set in. Due
to the Great Depression, we did not have the extra money to take care of
another child. We decided she and the
other three kids would have to go to foster homes. It was a bad night when we had to let her
go. A big, black limousine pulled in to
pick her up. She was scared of the
strange men who came to get her. She was
screaming, “I don’t want to go with them.”
I was really crying and sobbing when they were putting her in the car to
take her away. We waited a few months
for visitation rights. When we saw her
on the first visit, we knew this was the right decision. She appeared to be settling in good and was
very happy there. She had a baby
carriage with a doll and two teenage boys that gave her lots of love. The two boys went to a farm in Wallace, NY
and Isabel went to an orphanage in Bath, NY.
In 1935, my baby brother, Kenneth, was
born. He was born at home and I was sent
to Viola Edminster’s while he was being born.
I stood watching and wondering what was going on behind closed doors at
my house. After a few hours went by, I
had a baby brother and I was so proud of him; he was the apple of my eye.
When he was
3 or 4 years old, Clara Bortel, a family friend, would take Ken and my mom
shopping for groceries. The minute the
car stopped, he would get out and look for cigarette butts – no wonder he got
tuberculosis of the lungs! Another funny
thing was Ken would pull beer bottles around in his little cart, not realizing
this was something you don’t play with, let alone advertise. Our mom, who didn’t drink anything, would be
so embarrassed, especially when the preacher would come to call. My mother would say, “I can see the back of
my neck” (a favorite saying to show embarrassment).
My dad raised pigs, chickens, and
turkeys. I converted the pig pen into a
playhouse and did a larger playhouse from the chicken coop when there were
fewer chickens. We made mud from dirt
and water and when it dried up, we would use it for our food. We would pick wild flowers for our bouquets.
I had
special friends, John and Nellie Smith.
They gave me the privilege of using their home for a Halloween Party
when I was 12 years old. The party was a
lot of fun!
After the Bortels moved to Painted Post, we
were still friends. The Bortels were
close family friends. Clara Bortel gave me my first haircut. All my very long
curls were cut off. I had to get perms
in my hair after that to get curls in my hair.
They had five children: Betty was my age and she had a sister, Joyce and
three brothers, Leo, Donald, and Oliver.
At the Bortels we used to get in this big rocking chair and we would
rock and rock forever. I was not allowed
to dance or go to the movies while I was young, but would go with the Bortels. We used to go square dancing in the Foundry
parking lot. This is where I learned to
square dance. One night, I don’t know if
my dad had a suspicious feeling that I was going to a dance with the Bortels,
but he hung around until after 9 PM. We
went to the dance after he left and he never questioned me about it. Orin Bortel shot himself and Clara died in a
car accident. The kids lost their
parents in a tragic way.
Company always came to our house to eat with
us. We would have aunts, uncles,
cousins, friends, and sometimes neighbors.
All were invited to come; this was just my dad’s sharing nature.
Once I put a BB in Ray Teachman’s hand. He had his hand over the barrel of the gun
and I was messing around with it. The
gun went off and the BB went in his hand.
I really dreaded having to tell my dad what I had done. Dad told us to get in the car because they
had to get the BB out.
I met my husband in 1936 on the school
bus. He was 13 and I was 12; it was love
at first sight. His name was Bill
Stewart. We had 56 wonderful years
together and we enjoyed every minute of them.
Our love sparked a flame that never went out. Nothing so great ever hindered our marriage
for 56 years before he died.
Homer and Marie Reynolds bought the farm
from Viola Edminster and the Edminster’s moved to Presho, NY where they bought
another farm. Henry (Hank) Moore worked
on the farm for Homer Reynolds. Hank and
Lillian Moore had three boys and two girls: Clarence, Richard, Henry Jr., Grace
and Nataline Audrey. George Stewart,
married to Thelma Knapp, was another farmhand.
George had a teenage brother that lived with them. His name was Bill and when he came to the
farm, he was riding one horse and leading another. His laundry was done for him once a week by
his mother whom he called Ma Stewart.
She worked for Mr. and Mrs. Dildine as a housekeeper. She comes down once a week to see her
sons. She always wanted her younger son to
look nice for school. He went to school
at Addison High School. He had his nose
bent out of shape when his first niece (Pauline) was born. We enjoyed being together and having fun
together. We would play hide and seek
and make snow angels in the snow. We
also had fun playing inside games such as cards, Pick-up Stix, dominoes, and
miscellaneous board games. We also
enjoyed attending the four wiener roasts they would have each year at Addison
High School when we reached our teenage years.
During my junior year, Bill came up to the Pinnacle with the intent to
crash the party. I left the picnic and
walked home with him. My dad was so
upset with me for my actions and I never did that again. Just down the road, Bill would go swimming
behind the Grove.
About two years later, George accepted a new
job for Mr. Lawrence on another farm.
When Bill moved, he had to change schools. He went to two different schools during this
year before he came back to Addison: Painted Post, NY and Hammondsport,
NY. He lived with us while he finished
his schooling in Addison.
Tom Colby was our junkman and he was trying
to find a match to one of my favorite shoes that got thrown away, but he never
found it.
My parents and I went to Pittsburg, PA to
stay with Walt and Ellen Maddox (my dad’s niece). Their son, Jack, used to smoke glass so we
could look at the sun through the glass and it would not burn our eyes.
Harvey Wood
came to live on our property in 1938. He
lived with his mother. His mother was my
grandfather’s sister, Mate Wood. He used
the outside privy until we had an outside well drilled. He lived in the trailer on our property until
he went to Founders Pavilion Nursing Home and he died in 1979.
1940’s
In 1940,
the Moore boys went in the Army and I took my driver’s test and passed. Bill went to Washington, DC for his Senior
Trip. His was the last class to go to
Washington, DC for their trip. He
graduated in 1941. I went to Cleveland,
Ohio in 1942 for my Senior Trip. After
Bill graduated, he wanted to join the US Navy.
However, he didn’t pass the test and was classified 4F.
In 1941, my
Dad got Bill a job at the Ingersoll Rand Foundry. He had been working at the Foundry for 11
months when we had a picnic with friends at our cottage. Irene Stillman, Dorothy Wheeler, and Eldon
Robertson were all there and we were playing ball. Irene accidentally hit Bill in the chest and
he started hemorrhaging. We took him
home and called the doctor, and found out he had tuberculosis of the lungs. He went to a tuberculosis hospital in Mt.
Morris, NY on my 18th birthday and he had to stay for two
years. I went to see Bill and stayed
with Mrs. Reynolds. Mr. Fred Reynolds
was Bill’s roommate. She shared an
apartment with a Greek lady. While
there, I used an expression that backfired on me and I was so embarrassed. I said the expression, “It’s all Greek to
me.” After saying it, she said to me,
“Why did you say that to me?” She said
it very mean-like and her feelings were crushed. I told her that I say it all the time when I
don’t understand something.
I had my 18th
birthday at Aunt Idabelle’s home and I graduated from high school in 1942. My first job was baby-sitting for Mrs.
Hongsinger. My second job was working in
a 5 & dime store for Mr. Omalia. Then,
Harvey Wood got me a job in Corning Glass Works. At first I went to work on a machine that
cuts glass and the grinding machine that smoothed the bottom of the glass. Dick Casson came along and said, “You don’t
belong here pouring tar. I will get you
a transfer slip.” I was transferred to
an office job and then that job was made obsolete. I had an interview with Myles Madigan and I
got a job in the Bond Department and then I was transferred to the Credit Union
and that’s where I stayed for the rest of my 57 years until I retired. Some of my duties there included working on a
bookkeeping machine, file clerk, membership officer (signed new members), went
to other plants to give loans, worked on delinquent loans, and kept files for
everything. I was working on delinquent
loans when I retired.
A year
after Bill went to Mt. Morris, my brother, Ken, was taken to the same
hospital. He was in 2nd grade
and stayed for two years. Ken was then
taken to West Haverstraw Hospital in New Jersey. While he was there, he had an accident and
broke his leg. He was on the teeter
totter when a little girl, Catherine, fell off and his side came down on his
leg.
When Bill
came home in 1944, he got a job in Addison pumping gas and washing windows at a
gas station. We were engaged before Bill
went in the hospital. Now that he was
home, we proceeded to set our wedding plans for June 14, 1944. We were planning a double wedding with our
best friends, Dorothy Wheeler and Eldon Robertson. Dorothy’s mother had a feeling one of us
would not go through with the plans so Dorothy and Eldon got married at her mom’s
house and we got married at the Baptist Church in Addison. We both got married on June 14th
at 8PM, just in separate locations. When
we were getting things around for our wedding, Bill lost control of the car and
wiped out some guardrails. He was trying
to keep a small puppy from getting on the wedding cake topper, which I was
holding and we were taking to Mrs. Leo Miller.
We did not go on a honeymoon, but we stayed in Corning one night. Hank and Lillian Moore followed us around
honking their horn after we got married.
My maid of honor, Pauline Barrett, went to stay with her sister, Ruth
Shauger.
Our
marriage lasted six months when it started to go bad. Bill seemed to be unhappy, so I asked him if
he would feel different if we were on our own.
So, I went to the Credit Union and borrowed the money there to pay off
my grocery bill and to have cash in my pocket to pay for what I needed next time, not what I wanted(no more buying on the
spot). So, we found a furnished
apartment and moved in and then the real story came out.
We had
invited Grandma Stewart to come down to see our apartment since she hadn’t seen
it yet. Bill left without saying
anything about leaving or where he was going.
I thought he went to the bathroom to shave. After a while, I went to see what he was
doing and he was nowhere to be found. He
must have slipped down to the entrance on the first floor. Grandma Stewart looked at me and said, “I
don’t believe it.” When he returned
later that night, he crawled in bed and never touched me, hoping I was
sleeping. I said to him, “I can’t live
like this. It’s you or me.” He said, “I will go in the morning.” I got up the next morning and went to
work. When I came home that evening, he
was gone with his clothes and all.
While he
was gone, I had people come to me and tell me that they were keeping an eye on
him and he wasn’t making the best choice of the company he was keeping. They came and told me one night that he was
at a dance with a girl. Betty Bortel and
I were out one night when we came upon Bill and this girl. I jumped out of the car and started hitting
on the girl that Bill was with. And he
just stood there when she said, “Bill are you going to just stand there and let
me be used this way?” So, Bill took hold
of my hands and I backed off because I couldn’t see him or her since I had
broken my glasses. I went back to the
car and Betty and I left the scene of the crime.
One day,
Betty said to me, “I know somebody who would be good for you.” I thought about it and went to a barn dance
in the old barn in Elmira Heights and I had a good time. At the same time, Bill went to see my parents
to talk to them to see if he could try and get back together with me again. He came to see me the next night to
talk. I said to him, “How can I believe
this will never happen again?” He said,
“I don’t know, you will just have to believe me and trust me.” I was sitting on his lap, looking into his
eyes. I can proudly say that he lived up
to his words.
We had our
first child on June 22, 1946. A
beautiful baby boy with blonde hair, nearly a toe-head and lots of curls and we
named him Roger Wayne. When the time
came to cut his hair, I kept going back and forth, do I cut it or don’t I cut
it? I finally cut it and ended up liking
it. It made a little man out of him.
We lived
upstairs over Tucker’s until Roger was 16 months old. Then we had to go back home to stay with my
mom. She needed us because Dad had
cancer. We lived there for 3 years and
Dad passed away in November 1947.
1950s
We got our little girl on July 15, 1950 at
10 PM. Bill was so excited. He went to his mom’s house hollering, “I GOT
MY GIRL! I GOT MY GIRL!” Now we have to
start looking for a bigger place, as our family is growing. We found a place we could buy on contract
with $1000 down, so we bought it. I
cried every night wondering if we had jumped too fast. We purchased the house from Addison Chief of
Police, Elmer Bovee. We swapped the
piece of land we had on the Addison Road to Calvin and Emma Hoyt to build their
home on. After we bought our home on
Steuben Street in Addison, we sold the lot we received in the swap to George
Tucker.
We moved to Steuben Street in October 1950
and the house we bought already had tenants in the apartment. They decided not to stay long after we took
over and it make us feel bad, not knowing why they left. I found out later they had purchased a home
of their own. It all worked out because
Mom had rented her house to Leo and Dennira Clark and moved to Addison with
us. She lived in the apartment of the
house we just purchased. She stayed
there with us until Ken went to RBI (Rochester Business Institute) in
Rochester, NY. She moved up there with
him while he went to school. We went to
visit them a couple of times but I did not feel at ease taking my kids to an
environment that requires keeping an eye on them every minute.
A new family, Don and Lorraine Hartman and
their baby Ricky, moved into our apartment.
Our neighbors were Ray and Alma Murray, who lived two houses above us
and the Marvin’s were one house above us.
Vic and Lee Jones lived in the apartment in the back part of the house
next door to us. Ray Murray’s brother and his wife, Bernard and Arlene, lived next
door to us and Willy and Erma Cummings lived on the corner of Steuben
Street. Willy was killed in a car
accident. Across the street from us were
Don and Jean Snyder and their three kids, Donny, Patty, and Tommy.
Roger had a pithy stalk end poked in his
head, leaving a hole in the side of his head quite close to his temple. Patty Marvin was the one hurling the stalk
and Roger got in her way when she threw it.
We had to take him to the doctor to have it removed. Another time we had to take Roger to Arnot
Ogden Hospital and he was admitted for tests and they kept him a couple of
days. He was a very sick boy and he did
not want me to leave him. They finally
figured out it was hepatitis, which probably came from the stagnant water that
was in our ditch.
We went to get Shirley Sherwood, our niece,
to stay with us while her parents, Harry and Minnie, were going through a
divorce. Shirley was very happy to be
allowed to come and stay with us. She
met a boyfriend, Gordon Sprague, nicknamed Speed. It was her first boyfriend and they looked
cute together. They always went biking
and did fun things together. She stayed
with us almost a year. When Minnie married
Gail Anthony, they took her back home to live with them. We tried to give her the love and whatever
else was lacking in her life, but nobody can replace your mother’s love. She now has a nicer dad and Minnie has a
nicer husband. Bill and I really enjoyed
going to Minnie and Gail’s house and we always had a fun time whenever we got
together.
In 1953, we moved back over Tucker’s. The Klinkman’s house was built in 1953 and
our home was built in 1954. In 1955 we
moved into our home. In 1956 we had a
party that left black marks on our new floor.
They were made from wet high heels.
We were never able to get the stains out.
We started
going to the Methodist Church in Addison in 1956 so we could all go to church
as a family. We used to drop Roger off at
the Methodist Church so he could go with Donna Easton, while we went to the
Baptist Church. We decided to all go to
the Methodist Church and this is also where Elizabeth and Sterling Tucker and
their family went to church. One Sunday,
Roger got in trouble for shredding his choir robe. He was literally pulling his robe apart while
sitting in the choir pews.
One thing Bill and I thoroughly enjoyed
doing together, was bowling. We bowled
together on two leagues and he bowled on a men’s league. There was a time when I was bowling so often,
I thought I would lose my happy home. I
was always bowling for someone else who needed a sub. I made the paper by coming in 1st
place in the doubles with Harold Dates.
We gave up bowling when we met the Atherton’s and started camping.
1960s
Besides working at Corning Glass Works, Bill
also worked as a firefighter for Ray Murray, our local fire warden. I would type all his paperwork that he had to
send into the State. Ray also had a
movie theater on Main Street and Addison.
We would take our kids up there on the weekends; the kids would go to
the movies, I would visit with Alma and Bill would sit with Ray. Then Ray turned the movie theater into a Slot
Car Race Track, a place for the kids to go and keep them off the street. That only lasted a couple of years and then
he remodeled again and turned it into a wonderful steakhouse. It was a good place to go to get a great
steak.
Roger and Kenny Hotaling went into the US Navy
together on the buddy system and went to Great Lakes for their boot camp. Roger was then stationed in San Diego and
Kenny went to San Francisco.
In 1965, we
decided to take our vacation and headed out west to go visit Roger. Alex and Betty Hotaling went with us to go
see Kenny. We pulled our campers and
went across the southern part of the United States. We had fun travelling together, including the
thrills and scares. One time Betty had
her hand through a fence when we were looking at some buffalo. She did not remove it fast enough and she got
it caught and it was badly bruised by one of the buffalo. We went to the Grand Canyon in AZ. I would try to help Bill drive and one time I
had just turned the driving back over to Bill.
About 10 minutes later, we got a flat tire on our camper. I was so thankful I wasn’t driving when that
happened. Both sides of the road were
nothing but sand and we would have sunk in the sand if we pulled off on either
side of the highway. We were very lucky
that a big truck came up behind us. It
was in the middle of the night, so we used the headlights from the truck and
the driver helped change the tire and we were on our way in no time. We went just a little bit further and Bill
saw a “Hot Apple Pie” sign ahead and he thought that would be a great place to
stop so he could calm down and rest after the flat tire episode. We parted ways with the Hotaling’s while we
went to see Roger and they went to see Kenny.
Roger took us to Tijuana, Mexico, the Pacific Ocean, Hollywood, Los
Angeles, and a trip to Disney Land. We
had a fun time that year in California.
After leaving Roger, we went on to meet the Atherton’s at Yellowstone
National Park. We drove 27 hours to get
there to meet up with Harry, Eleanor, Denny, Lee, and Nancy. While we were on this little vacation, Joan
and Nancy each got a baby chick and the baby chicks would follow them
everywhere. On our way home, we stopped
to camp in Michigan. We all went on a
walk around the campgrounds and the baby chicks were walking and following
us. Harry stepped on Nancy’s chick and
it died. Nancy was one broken-hearted
girl.
In 1961, we joined the Shanty Shifter Camping
Club. We have met so many friends
through our camping years. We met this
one great and loveable family in 1967 from West Virginia, Don and Dee
King. We went to West Virginia and only
planned on staying one night, but ended up staying a week because we had such a
good time. They invited us to come back
to West Virginia again, we went back and took a lot of our old friends that we
normally camp with and everyone had an enjoyable time. One time they came to NY to spend time with
us. They didn’t arrive until after
midnight, so we invited them to stay in our camper with us. They had a pop-up camper and it was easier to
wait until the next day to set it up.
When we were out camping, Bill was always the social butterfly, out and
about visiting everybody. One time at
Ohio Muds, he came up behind this lady and hugged her because he thought it was
Lavina Hubbard. We were all in the
background watching him. You should have
seen his face when he realized it wasn’t her.
He turned beet red with embarrassment when he realized he had his arms
around a stranger. The lady realized it
was a mistake and just smiled.
Besides
camping, we had many adventures at Watkins Glen Racetrack. We worked at Watkins Glen Grand Prix Racetrack
in Watkins Glen, NY. There were five
families that worked together: Bill and Jo Stewart, Harry and Eleanor Atherton,
John and Helen Kellogg, Al and Ellen Eccleston, and Don and Lavina
Hubbard. We sold the parking and camping
tickets for the races. The guys would be
at the gates selling the tickets and us girls would go around and get the money
from the guys. It was risky because we
would put the money in helmets, our pockets, or anywhere else we could find to
put it. We never worried about the
dangers of losing it or anybody bothering us.
However, one time we didn’t show up in a certain area at a certain
time. Our men got concerned and they
came out looking for us. That ended the
women picking up money. I was put in
charge of counting the money in my camper when the guys would bring it to
me. Our campers were put in a special
fenced-in area that was just for us.
There were some incidents that occurred during our adventures at the
racetrack. One time, one of the guys
thought a man was coming toward me and Ken Reed cam leaping over the fence like
a flash. We always watched out for each
other. They had a Bog at the track,
which is a slippery, muddy area where they take their cars through. We saw a young kid, who was drunk, take his
dad’s new car through the deep mud in the Bog and he got stuck there. He put his head in his hands and started
crying, “This is my dad’s new car!” Kind
of late to be thinking about that! We
did this job for six years, selling the tickets and directing the campers to
the camping area. Bill lost interest
when Gail had an accident. He was hit by
a hit-and-run driver who tried to run the gate.
He had some broken bones and was laid up for quite a while. Bill worked the last race and then quit at
the end of the 1971 season.
Joan married Bob Hoaglin on September 22, 1967
and they moved to Elmira. Bob worked at
Westinghouse and was then drafted in the Army in January 1968. He went away to Ft. Dix and Joan stayed with
us because she was pregnant. She gave
birth to her baby girl, Cheri Lynn on March 25, 1968. Cheri Lynn was only 10 days old when we took
her and Joan to Ft. Dix to Bob’s graduation.
He was assigned to Ft. Gordon in Augusta, GA, so we took Joan and Cheri
to Georgia so they could be with Bob.
They weren’t there long when he received orders for Wichita Falls, TX
and Joan and Cheri went with him. Then,
Bob got orders for Vietnam. Joan and
Cheri flew back home to be with us and she found out she was pregnant again. She gave birth to her son, Robert Warren II
on February 21, 1969. Bob got R & R
in August 1969, so Joan flew to Hawaii for 10 days to be with him. Bill and I kept the two kids for them. She came back from Hawaii very unhappy and
didn’t want to go anywhere with Bob again.
We told her the family needs to stay together to give the two kids a
good home. So, Bob came home from
Vietnam and had orders for Germany. He
was over there for 6 months and had everything all set up for Joan and the kids
to go over, even though she didn’t want to.
In 1969, Roger married Linda Essman. Linda had a son, Kevin born in 1967. Roger (Ty) was born in May 1968 and Jamie was
born in 1972.
1970’s
We lost a very dear friend of ours, Ray
Murray. He was flying in a small plane
for his job and the plane got caught in some trees in Hammondsport, NY while
taking off. Bill and I spent many hours
with his wife, Alma, and their two girls, Chris and Pam. Our kids grew up together and were all very
close.
Joan came back from Germany with Cheri and
Robby in June 1971 and she refused to go back to finish out the tour with
Bob. She was not happy with him and
wanted a divorce. She took the kids and
went off to Colorado with her friend, Linda (Curreri) Dickerson. She lived there from 1971-1973.
In the winter of 1971, we pulled a large
trailer down to Florida for Bill and Audrey Morris. Bill had to stay in Florida because of his
health issues and Audrey had to come back since she did not have enough time to
retire yet. We had a lot of fun on our
way home. We stopped to eat at a special
spot, South of the Border. When we
arrived at home, we had the biggest snowfall of the year. Our driveway had not been plowed out because
nobody knew we were on our way home. The
snow was at least 7 feet deep in our driveway, so we didn’t even attempt to get
in. We turned around and headed for
Audrey’s house. If it wasn’t cleared out,
we were going to get someone to clear it for her. Her driveway was clear, so we ended up
staying the night with Audrey and had ours cleared the next morning. Bill loved to get his tractor out in the
winter and play in the snow. He always
kept the driveways clean and a path between our house and my mom’s house. His lawn was his pride and joy. He always kept the lawn cut and the shrubs
trimmed. He would mow the grass one way
and the next time, he would mow it the opposite way.
One of the biggest events of the 1970’s was
the Flood of 1972. In late June my mom
had gotten a phone call from Ken and he was having chest pains. We decided to take her up to Oswego so she
could be there with him in case anything happened. When we came back home, the water was high,
but nothing we hadn’t seen before. We
went to work as usual the next morning.
I came home from work early with Jack Hawkins and we could see the river
was high, but still not alarming. We had
a bite to eat and went sight-seeing with Herm and Teresa Ball to check on the
water situation and then back to their house to play cards (we lived 8 houses
away from the overpass and they lived a few houses on the other side of the
overpass). We heard the sirens and
thought it was an accident on the highway.
We finally decided to go home and got as far as the overpass. The water was over the road and we had to
drive through water that was over our headlights. When we got to our house, someone had been
there alerting people to go back to the Agway Plant (on the other side of the
Tucker Farm and back by the railroad tracks).
Our cellar was filling up with water.
We only had a few minutes to put together some things we would need to
take with us. After we left, we realized
how much we had forgotten. We had just
bought several loaves of bread for the freezer and if we were in the right
frame of mind, we would have taken it with us as it could have come in
handy. I left my Teddy, our 14 year old family
cat, behind. He survived the flood by
jumping around on the counters to stay out of the rising waters. He was so scared. After we were able to come back home, he
ended up dying on the highway. After we
gathered a few things, we left our house deciding which way to go. We decided to go to Corning. We got down to the overpass to make the left
turn to go up on the four-lane and we saw the Ball’s. We were all playing cards and having fun an
hour earlier and now we were all looking for a place to hang our hats. We thought of Chuck and Jean Woodhouse, a
couple we bowl with and they lived up on 3rd Street. They welcomed Bill and me, as well as Herm
and Teresa and we stayed with them until the water went down. While in Corning, we stood on the front porch
and watched all of the action of the railroad bridge going out at 5AM. They had it weighted down with boxcars and
when it finally went, it looked like matchsticks being tossed in the
water. We stood and watched for a long
time. It was a great view looking down
from 3rd Street. Bill and
some of the other guys helped evacuate Corning Hospital. Roger finally found out where we were at and
came to check on us. We stayed with them
for 5 days until Mark and Shirley Unger brought their truck camper for us to
stay in. We had a lot of friends that came and helped us get our house back in
shape. We put our carpet up on the roof
to dry out. We were only able to save a
few pieces of furniture: the deacon’s bench, the twin bunk beds made by Ray
Murray and any furniture we had in the attic, and the twin tub sinks we had in
the cellar. Harry Atherton put signs in
our yard to help brighten our days. One
said, “Big sale here today – half price” and the other said, “If you can’t use
it, take it anyway – it’s free.” My
mom’s house had to be stripped to the rafters and started over new. When the Ball’s returned home, nothing was
touched in their house, but their yard was torn up and water was in their
basement almost up to the first floor of their house. The office where I worked was slammed by
flood waters and had to be gutted. The
records of the Credit Union members were saved and moved to higher
grounds. We had to set up a HUD trailer
for several weeks so the credit union could do business. My thoughts after the flood: Always have a smile on your face. There has to be something foolish during the
day to put a smile on your face even though things look grim and gray.
We never saw Roger again until we flew to
Colorado to spend Christmas with Joan and the kids in December 1972. Roger left Linda. We didn’t know things were going bad between
them. This is where he met Nikki and he
started working for the cable company and they started travelling on the road
together. Joan and her kids moved back
to NY in 1973 and they stayed with us. Joan
got a job at the Gang Mills Diner and then a job at Corning Glass Works in
March 1974 and stayed there until March 1979.
We were camping in Elkland, PA when we were all playing Bingo and Joan
met Stu Esterbrook. The Esterbrooks were
from Painsville, OH and were camping with some of their friends. Stu was in the Marine Corps. They started dating and then he started
coming to NY every other weekend to see her.
She married Stu in May 1976, but she was going through a wild time in
her life and they ended up separating.
In March 1979 Joan and the kids moved to Jacksonville, NC to be with Stu
and try to make a go of their marriage.
We helped her out a lot through the 70’s with the kids and trying to
help her through whatever she was going through. We got to spend a lot of time with our
grandchildren. Bill and I just worked
all the time and went to see Joni and the kids whenever we could.
1980’s
We were still working and going to NC to see
Joni and the kids when we could. Stu and
Joni ended up getting a divorce in 1980, but she still stayed in Jacksonville
and we would go down to visit when we could and spend Christmas with them.
One day I was at work when Bill showed up
and said, “This is it, I’m retiring.” I
gave my notice too. I had to work one
more day than him, but it was nice retiring together so we could enjoy it
together. Joni came home and we had a
big retirement party. We spent more time
travelling to see our kids and doing things with them. We stopped in NC and picked up Cheri and
Robby and took them to Florida and Disney World.
The summer of 1982, Linda Dickerson showed
up at our house and said, “I have a present that Joni sent back to you.” Just then, Cheri popped out of the
backseat. We were totally shocked, but
happy! Joni needed to get her life
pulled together and sent Cheri home to live with us until she got herself
together. It was a big joy to us. Cheri is what kept us young. Our friends said we were crazy to take in a
granddaughter when we had just retired and were supposed to be enjoying
ourselves, but we didn’t feel that way.
We were very pleased to have her with us and we enjoyed being a part of
her life and her school activities. She
missed her mom, but we all knew it was the best for now. She is the apple of our eye and we loved
every minute with her. She was a good
girl and so smart in school.
The next
part of our life was my mom getting lung cancer and she had a tracheotomy and a
tube put in her throat. She couldn’t
stay alone at night, so I went to spend nights with her. This was not easy on Bill, but we made it
through. I would stand and stare out the
window at Mom’s house looking at our house, and I could see him standing there
looking back at me. I was over there for
4 months when she went to the hospital and died on April 25, 1983. Everyone came home for her funeral: Ken and
Jean, Joni and Rob, and Roger and Nikki.
Everyone left and our life revolved around Cheri and her school
activities. Her teen years were very
enjoyable.
In March 1985, I get a call from Roger in
Florida. He and Nikki wanted to move
back to this area. I told him that his
sister was going through a rough time and needed to come home too. He went to Jacksonville, NC and picked up his
sister and all her stuff and both my kids moved home. Roger and Nikki stayed in our basement and
Joni stayed upstairs with us. After the
Bartoo’s moved out of Mom’s house, Roger and Nikki moved in there. Joni got a job at the Hitchin’ Post, a small
diner in Addison, and met Rusty (Lester) McMindes. She was very happy with this man and we
really enjoyed him as well. Cheri
graduated in 1986 and started college at Fredonia in September. Rusty, Joni, Bill, and I moved her up there
one weekend and got her settled in.
Rusty and Joni got a trailer together in Addison and then they opened up
a small diner, RJ’s Café, in 1987. We
spent many hours there helping them and visiting with customers. It was a very fun and relaxing atmosphere. We enjoyed spending time with Joni and Rusty
as well as going to visit Cheri or spending time with her when she came
home. Rusty and Joni got married on
January 1, 1989 in our living room. They
closed their diner because Chuck Allen, their landlord, continued to raise the
rent because their business was doing so well.
Rusty got called back to work at Dresser-Rand and Joni started a daycare
center. Her first child was Amber Causer
and she got her at 6 weeks old. Roger
and Nikki bought a house in Woodhull and they moved there the summer of
1989. Rusty and Joni said they wanted to
buy Mom’s house, so we sold it to them on a land contract. They started remodeling that summer and moved
into the house in the fall. It was
really nice having them next door to us – we did things with them and played
cards a lot.
1990’s
Cheri Lynn graduated from Fredonia in May
1990. The four of us went up there to
her graduation and then packed her up and brought her back home with us. Cheri was home and was very enjoyable to have
around. Life was great – we did things
all the time with Rusty, Joni, and Cheri.
We always ate supper together and usually played cards. We all enjoyed playing cards, especially
Bill. He was always saying, “Can we play a game or two?”
Joni worked at the Old Grove Diner for Judy
Beach and Rusty was working at Dresser-Rand.
We did everything with them: yard sales, flea markets, and little road
trips to different places – it was so enjoyable to spend so much time with
them. Rusty’s health continued to
deteriorate. His lungs were getting
worse from working so many years in the Foundry and Ingersoll Rand where my dad
also worked. He finally had to give up
working and was on total disability and put on a lung transplant list. Joni quit her job at the diner and started
another daycare in her home so she could be home and watch over Rusty. She had quite a houseful some days, as many
as 15 kids at a time. They both enjoyed
the daycare and had the kids on such a great routine and schedule. All the kids loved Bill and I and called us
Grandma and Grandpa. Amber Causer was
her first one, followed by Samantha Clark, Brittini Stanford, Cady Smith, Adam
and Ethan Bartoo, Darcia, Courtney, some of their siblings, and so many more
whose names I can’t remember. The kids
loved Rusty. He worked with them daily
and they all remember that he was the one to teach them how to tie their
shoes. Whenever there was a day they
only had 2 or 3, we would pack them up and head to the mall for an outing.
In 1990, my brother and Peggy came out to
visit with their two little girls, Patty and Sarah. Patty was Peggy’s from her first marriage and
Sarah was Ken and Peggy’s. After Ken and
Peggy got married, he adopted Patty and she became Patty Yeaples at age 5. Sarah was born on May 10, 1989 and was 16
months old when they came to visit us.
They wanted to visit to see how they liked our area because they were
thinking about moving back here. Peggy’s
mom was very sick so they had to return to AZ, but she said, “We will be
back!” It was three months later when
they returned to NY to live after her mom passed away. They stayed with us a few months in our
basement until they found a home in Addison.
It was on Steuben Street across from where we used to live. Peggy got a job at Wegman’s and they were
paper carriers for The Corning Leader.
We spent a lot of time with them.
We would go to their house to enjoy them and their kids and Ken would
stop in for coffee if he was down our way.
Peggy got pregnant again and had to have a C-section. She was able to choose and picked July 15th,
1991 (Joni’s birthday) to have their new additions. Yep, they had twins! Rebecca Jo Yeaples was born first followed by
William Scott Yeaples on July 15th at 2:45 pm. What a joy they brought to our lives and Ken
was blessed with a beautiful family, a loving and caring life plus four adorable
children. It was rough on them, but
through God, they made it through it all.
We did everything we could to help them.
Cheri went up there to stay to become their nanny and help Ken and Peg
out.
In 1992,
Cheri decided to join the Navy and off she went to do her own thing in
life. We think she joined because of
Peggy’s brother, Scott, whom she was dating for a bit, but who knows. We would go to see her when we could – she is
definitely the apple of our eye. In
the Navy, she met a guy, Jimmie Handley.
She was flying to her next duty station in Washington, DC. Dave Draper, the duty driver for her new
command, was meeting her at the airport and he asked Jimmie (who also worked at
the command) to ride along and so Cheri met Jimmie at the airport. I’m not sure when they started dating, but he
ended up being the one and they became engaged.
In the
summer of 1993, Jimmie and Cheri were planning a trip home. Grandma Hoaglin called to tell us Bob had
another daughter, Emily, in Texas and she was coming to NY to visit and meet
his side of the family. This trip was a
graduation present from her parents. Bob
and Rhonda were divorced and she was re-married to Ron Wilkins who had adopted
Emily. Rob was in the area as well, so
Rob and Cheri got to meet their half-sister and spend some time with her.
Cheri was
planning her wedding for February and wanted Emily to be in the wedding. She had a sister and liked the idea of
that. The wedding was on February 5,
1994 at the United Methodist Church in Addison.
Emily and her mom, Rhonda, flew out for the wedding and reception. Rhonda stayed with Joni and Rusty and Emily
stayed at our house with Cheri. Cheri
had Emily, Peggy, Patty, Sarah, and Theresa, her best friend from college, in
the wedding. It was a very nice wedding
and reception. Jimmie took her to New
Orleans, in his home state, for Mardi Gras for their honeymoon.
In June
1994, Rusty and Joni planned a big surprise 50th Anniversary Party
for us. It was a very nice party. Many of our friends and family came and it
was very enjoyable. Jimmie and Cheri
came home for our party and then all six of us went to the Poconos and stayed
in Joni’s condo. We had a great time in
the mountains – we played cards, shuffleboard and we went to game night where
they played the Newlywed Game. Cheri and
Jimmie played the game; they were the only true newlyweds playing and came in 2nd
place. It was a very relaxing week.
Bill and I
began to go to a lot of yard sales to buy stuff, and then we would have our own
yard sales to re-sell items and make a little extra money. Our yard sales started out small and then our
friends and family began to join us until it was the size of a small flea
market. We would do this three or four
times a year. Harry & Eleanor
Atherton, Al & Thelma Wilcox, Sharon Bartoo, Chris Bettinger, Janice & Al
(we would buy some of our stuff at their store in Arkport), Denny & Sue
Atherton, Lee & Gail Atherton are some of the folks that would join
us. Rusty and Joni made baked goods to
sell and Roger and Nikki would set up a grill and sell hamburgers, hot dogs, and
soda. It was a lot of hard work, but
also a fun weekend. Everyone would bring
a dish to pass and we would all eat together.
It was something we enjoyed doing and also gave us extra cash to do
things with.
Nothing
spectacular happened in 1995. We continued
our yard sale hobby and went to see Cheri whenever we could. They are stationed in Virginia now. We still spent a lot of time with Rusty and
Joni, whether it was eating meals together or playing cards. We could see Rusty’s health deteriorating, but
he still tried to keep up with us and do things. Rusty and Joni went to the Holiday Inn every
Wednesday night because Joni wanted to learn line dancing. He couldn’t do the dances, but he would
always go with her and be in the crowd.
In April
1996, I got a phone call from Peggy saying they were on the way to hospital
with my brother. She said, “He had
another heart attack and I think this is the one.” He didn’t make it and died April 24,
1996. What a heart break for all of us
and he left Peggy behind with four kids to care for. They were going to church in Lawrenceville,
PA and she was told by her pastor that she needed to move to Elkland so he and
the church could keep an eye on them and help them out; so she did. We went over there a few times to see her and
the kids, but she didn’t seem the same toward us, so we didn’t visit
often.
Joni opened
a Slender You work-out center on Steuben Street in Addison and named it Joni’s
Body Works. Rusty would go up there and
sit with her during the day, so he wouldn’t be home alone. We would go up there and hang out with them
as well. She started teaching line
dancing in her shop. In December, she
moved her shop to Main Street. She moved
her line-dancing lessons to the high school and hired a beautician for the
front of her shop.
Joni’s son,
Rob, was always on the road working. He
was always travelling from state to state doing cable TV work. He was in New Jersey working when he met a
girl, Denise. We went to New Jersey for
their wedding. Scott and Becca were in
their wedding so we took all four kids with us for the weekend. Roger was working in New Jersey around the
same time. He had a major heart attack
and he was having heart surgery in New York City. We put our heads together to figure out how
to be with Roger through this. Joni
drove us to New Jersey to Rob and Denise’s and since Rob knew his way around,
he took us into the city and got us to the hospital. We stayed the whole day there with him and
Nikki and then went back to New Jersey.
The next day, we got up and went back to the city with Rob. Bill and I stayed at the hospital with Nikki
and Rob & Denise took Joni on a tour of New York City. I guess she had a blast. She walked a lot of city blocks and was quite
worn out, but she enjoyed it. Roger made
it through another heart attack and surgery, which he has had plenty of. Rob & Denise decided to move up here a
moved into Spring Ponds. Denise was a
manicurist and started doing nails in Joni’s shop. Eventually Rob & Denise split up and she
went back to New Jersey. She was too
high class for him, but each to their own.
Then Rob met Lea. We all loved
her and she was good for Rob. We used to
go to New Jersey to see Rob & Lea to try to spend time with him as
well. Sometimes I don’t believe in my
heart that he believes we love him as much as we do Cheri. That saddens my heart because we do love him
the same. We might not agree with his
choices in life, but that doesn’t make us love him any less. Just like my own kids didn’t always make
choices we agreed with; we still don’t love them any less.
Cheri Lynn
is going to have a baby boy in August 1997.
We are all excited as this will be Joni’s first grandchild and our first
great-grandchild. On the heels of this
good news, Rusty got his call to go to Pittsburg for his lung transplant on May
5th. We took him and Joni to
the airport to catch the Mercy Flight to Pittsburg. The rest of us followed in the next day or
two. Danny and Theresa left to go as
soon as Joni let them know what was going on.
Theresa stayed a day with them and then came back to NY and left Danny
with Joni. Bill and I got around and
went down to be with Joni through this.
Cheri wanted to come from Virginia to be with her mom and her mom told
her, “No, you are pregnant. I will let
you know how things are going.” Well,
she wanted to be with her mom and she and Jimmie showed up and surprised us
all. Rusty was just holding his own all
week long. On Friday afternoon, his
heart gave out and he passed away on May 9th. It was a very sad ride home from Pittsburg,
but Joni seemed to be holding her own and doing OK. Danny’s birthday was May 12 and Joni said,
“There is no way we are doing any part of the funeral on his birthday.” We had calling hours on the 13th
and he was buried on the 14th.
I am concerned about Joni, wondering where her life is going to go and
hope she makes the right choices. All I
can do is pray for the best for her and that she goes the right way. She continued on with her workout shop every
day and we tried to do things with her to keep her busy. In August, we took her to Virginia to Cheri’s
so she could be there when the baby was born.
Jimmie and Cheri went to the hospital in the evening of August 21st
and Jimmie called at midnight and said she will be having him soon, so you
might want to come to the hospital. Joni
got to be in the labor room with Jimmie and Cheri and see her grandson born; it
was quite an experience. Traven Joseph
Handley was born at 2:15 am on August 22, 1997.
So, this is Joni’s new life: her grandson, her pride and joy. As the saying goes, “When God closes a door,
he opens a window.” Her world now
revolved around Cheri and Jimmie and the new baby. She gave up Joni’s Body Works and went back
to work for Judy at The Old Grove Diner.
In 1998, we
started noticing strange things going on with Bill. We weren’t sure what was happening but we
began to see things that just weren’t right.
Between Joni and me, we kept a close eye on him and tried to figure
things out. We had a talk with Dr. Mauer
about it and he feels Bill is in the beginning stages of dementia. We had our hands full with Bill and this new
disease we had never had to deal with before.
That summer, Peggy met a guy named Barry Mather at church. Patty and Sarah had it figured out that they
liked each other and so it was the kids who got them together. Barry fell in love with the kids before he
did Peggy. God knew what he was doing
with that family. One day after church,
the kids asked Barry if they could ride back with him. Barry is 37, never married, didn’t want to be
married and didn’t want kids. So, what
does God do? He drops a girl in his life
with four kids. On the ride home, Scotty
says, “You know Barry, my mom needs a husband.”
He said he almost choked on that since he wasn’t expecting that. He is a biking enthusiast so he and Peggy
started riding bikes with the kids and the next thing we know, they are
planning a wedding. They were married
December 5, 1998 in Westfield, PA. It
was a beautiful wedding. The song that
Bill walked her down the aisle to was “Our God is an Awesome God.” Joni and all the kids were in the
wedding. We spent Christmas with Peggy
& Barry and the kids which was fun and enjoyable. They moved to Borden, where Barry lives.
As we move
into 1999, things keep getting worse with Bill.
I am the one that has to do all the driving because he doesn’t remember
where to go or where to turn. He also
has what they call Sundowner’s Disease, which is a part of Dementia. When the sun goes down, he starts getting
restless and doesn’t know where he is at.
About the same time every day, he would say, “I need to get going,” and
I would ask him, “Where are you going?” and he would tell me, “Home.” I would say, “You are home,” and he would
say, “No, I need to get back to the farm.”
He was remembering the farm he grew up on. It was so sad to see him this way, but I was
so thankful that Joni lived next door and was here to help me with him. We worked things out and worked together to
care for him as long as we could here at home.
Then came the day when we had to put him in a nursing home. He went to Founder’s Pavilion. He just got too much for us to care for. One evening Joni said she was going to K-Mart
and would be right back. Bill was
sitting on the couch and I went to the bathroom. I came out of the bathroom and Bill was
gone. I looked everywhere in the house
for him and couldn’t find him anywhere.
I got my keys and got in our van to go look for him. I got to the end of the driveway thinking
which way to go first. I turned right
and headed up the road. I turned into
Tucker’s 2nd driveway to find out if he wandered off toward their
farm. Sure enough, as I came around the
driveway, there he was staggering through the snow. As I got closer, I saw he was bleeding from
his head. He had fallen on the ice and
snow. I got him in the van and went back
to the house to get him cleaned up. I
called Joni’s house and left a message that I was taking him to the ER because
he had some deep cuts. Joni came home
and was scared because our house was lit up like a church and no one was
home. She finally listened to her
voicemail and found out where we were and came to the hospital. He came home with us that night, but the next
time he got sick and ended up in the hospital is when he ended up going to
Founder’s since he was only getting worse.
Now my day consists of daily visits to Founder’s to be with Bill. I would go down after breakfast and stay with
him through lunch. I would come home for
a rest and go back down to stay with him through supper and stay until about 7
pm. I did this every day and Joni kept
telling me I had to slow down on my visits before I ended up in the
hospital. But, I wanted to be with my
husband all I could. He kept getting
worse as the days went on. I would get
phone calls that we may have to take him out of there because he was being so
irate. I don’t know what I would do
then. That never happened. They worked with his meds to get him to calm
down some. We would hold all our
birthdays and holidays there so Bill could still be a part of our family
doings. Jimmie, Cheri and Traven would
come home as much as they could since we couldn’t go down there like we used
to. We dealt with circumstances the best
we could. It was just Joni and me
dealing with everyday life, but we did it together and became closer and best
friends. She was always there for me no
matter what I needed, and I was there for her.
2000’s
We enter
into a new century and it finds us with Bill still at Founder’s and me still
going to see him every day. Joni is
still living next door and still there for me whenever I need her. She is still working for Judy at the
diner. In March, Joni goes to the
chiropractor for a treatment and she tells them she thinks something is wrong
with her right leg because it keeps going numb on her and she keeps
falling. He sends her to the neurologist
for x-rays. After looking at the x-rays,
he tells her to go to her family physician as soon as possible because the
x-ray showed a tumor inside of her. She went to see Dr. Mauer and sure enough,
there is a huge tumor and after blood work, they realize it is cancerous. She has to go see a doctor at the Corning
Cancer Center and we find out she has ovarian cancer and has to have
surgery. I was with her when she got
this news and she looked at me and said, “I want to go see Cheri, Jimmmie, and
Traven before I have any surgery.” We
went to spend Easter with the Handley’s.
It was very scary but we both knew we could make it through this
together. Once we got back from
Virginia, we started the ball rolling.
Her attitude was, “OK, I have cancer, now let’s fix it.” She liked her doctor at the Cancer
Center. He told her, “OK Joni, we are
going to do this together. You are going
to keep a positive attitude through all of this, I am going to do the medical
part, and we have God as our Pilot.” We
set up the date for the hysterectomy to have the tumor removed and see what the
next step was. The best part was all of
the cancer was encased inside the tumor and it didn’t spread elsewhere. However, they wanted her to do the chemo just
to be safe and we agreed. 2000 was a
rough year for Joni as she was so sick from the chemo. After she left the hospital, she came home
and stayed with me at the house so I could be with her and take care of
her. She was so sick and all she did was
sleep. I would go with her to the Cancer
Center for her treatments. She had to go
once a month for a treatment, sick for three weeks, one good week and time for
another treatment. I still went to see
Bill when Joni was sleeping. Family and
friends would stop to visit, but we had to be careful who saw her because her
immune system was so low. She couldn’t
be around anyone sick or with a cold. It
was rough, but we survived that year.
2001
brought more of the same. Joni was still
very weak and trying to gain her strength back.
I was still taking care of her and going to see Bill. In the summer, Corning Inc. started sending
guys around to talk to everybody between the 4-lane and the Agway plant about
selling their property to Corning Inc. so they can build a new factory
there. All of the neighbors got together
to talk it over and we all decided to do it.
Our homes were sold by September 1st. What an ordeal trying to pack up 2 houses and
move out of them. Joni and I got an
apartment together in Spring Ponds. It
was a 3 bedroom and it was perfect for us.
Downstairs there was the kitchen, living room, bath and my bedroom. Upstairs were 2 bedrooms and Joni turned one
into a den. We both loved it there and
shared some good memories there. We
decorated it so cute and Christmas 2001 was perfect with all of our family home
for the holidays. Bill got sick over the
holidays and put in the hospital with pneumonia. We don’t know if he is going to make it
through this one as he is one sick man.
He kept getting worse and passed away on January 4, 2002 at 9:15 am with
Joni, Roger, and myself at his bedside.
We were all there with him and that did my heart good, having my kids by
my side through this. We made it through
the funeral together as a family and now a new chapter in my life begins. It is going to be different not going to the
hospital or to Founder’s, but Joni and I are together in seeing what life has
to offer us.
In April
2002, Joni has plans to go Myrtle Beach with Kathy Riley. She goes to the doctor with me to see about a
hernia that I have and he says he wants to do surgery to repair it. He said April 7th which is during
the week she was supposed to be gone. He
told her she could still go, it was only day surgery. Joni told him, “No, I am not going anywhere
while my mom is having any kind of surgery.”
The surgery day came and Joni was at the hospital with me. The doctor came and told her there were some
complications so they were keeping me overnight. Joni was glad she didn’t go to Myrtle Beach. She went home that evening and came back the
next day. They had gotten me up in a chair
and Joni was lying on my bed talking to me when I had no clue what was going
on. Come to find out, I had a TIA. That was around 3PM and at 5PM, I had a full
blown stroke. I couldn’t talk and was
paralyzed on my right side. From what
Joni told me, by Sunday they didn’t think I was going to pull through and even
called in the minister for my last rites.
On Monday, I did a turn around and started in the opposite
direction. A speech therapist came in
and started working with me on my speech to get me talking again. In 3 days, she had me saying “I love
you.” On Wednesday, they sent me to St.
Joseph’s Hospital in Elmira for rehab. I
remember when I got to St. Joseph’s, I had to go into this tunnel. They were doing an MRI and then things were
very fuzzy and I wasn’t thinking clear.
I do remember my room had four beds in it and they worked with me every
day. I was there for 12 weeks and went
through a very good and strong rehab center.
Joni drove to Elmira every day to be with me. She tells me how she worked with me on my
speech with flash cards and tried everything she could do to get me talking
again. She was by my side through it all
and very faithful to me. She even planned
a birthday party for my 78th birthday. After my rehab time, I had to go to a nursing
home. As much as Joni wanted to take me
home, there was no way she could care for me paralyzed in a wheelchair. On July 5th, I was put in Joni’s
car and she took me to Three Rivers Nursing Home in Gang Mills, which was close
to Spring Ponds and she could easily visit me.
Joni said, “You must have known something was going on when you had your
TIA because you looked at me and said, “Whatever, not Founder’s”.”
I was put
into a private room (153) until my Medicare ended and Medicaid took over. I then moved into a double room (200) with a
resident who couldn’t talk and I became very protective of her. I did not want to leave her alone so I would
stay in my room and watch TV. Joni
brought me in some velvet posters to try to start coloring, which meant I had
to teach myself to use my left arm since my right side was the paralyzed side. I was determined to learn to do this to keep
me from going stir crazy. This was a
whole new beginning for me. I was
coloring every day with my left hand and even started to practice printing. My roommate died after a few months and I had
two different new roommates. They
weren’t very nice so I moved to Room 206.
This was Doris Cook’s room and I knew her through my Aunt Idabelle. We talked during the day and things were
going well. I even watched her
granddaughter’s wedding in the courtyard through our window. Doris was a great friend to have and her son,
Frank, and daughter-in-law, Pam, went to school with Joni. Frank & Pam brought some very nice gifts
from New York City. Frank worked at
Arby’s and we used to go eat there and he treated us like royalty. Doris passed away and about a year later, Pam
died unexpectedly from a heart attack.
After Doris died, they moved in June Buckley and all she did was
cry. This was very depressing and made
my moods low. I was then moved to Room
242 and was alone in there for about three days when Annabelle Wilson became my
roommate. She had three sisters(Grace,
Carol and Sis) and a niece, Permilia.
They were all so sweet. She
passed away and Joni thought Rhonda Stanton would be a good roommate for me,
and in the beginning I thought so too. You
talk to her and think things are ok, but once you try to carry on a
conversation with her, you find out she’s not all there. She thinks her parents are still alive, but
since she is 83, I kind of doubt it.
When she began to get violent, I went to get a nurse and she was taken
to Unit A for a few days until a private room opened up. She ended up in Room 253 and stayed there
until she passed away. While I was
reading Rhonda’s obituary in The Corning Leader, I saw one of my classmates,
Charles Levi, had passed away. His
sister, Augusta, was my best friend. She
and Buss Moore double dated with Bill and me.
We lost track of each other when she got a job with Eastman Kodak and I
went to work at Corning Glass Works.
Augusta is still alive and Joni found an address for me and we have been
writing to each other. When Rhonda left,
Arlene Spaulding became my roommate. We
didn’t say too much to each other. She
was very quiet and her TV is always on programs I am not interested in, sex
programs and murder stories. I listen to
Lawrence Welk and the news and weather.
This is when I decided to write my life story. I figured it would keep my mind alive and
active and I would go back to my coloring when my book is finished. This takes up my time and I don’t want to be
one of the ones that are “not cooking on the front burner” or watching bad
stuff on TV. I met Marlene Pym, the
daughter of Catherine Crane who I used to work with at Corning Credit Union. I got a lap cover as a gift at Christmas time
with her name and address in the corner of it.
I sent her a note to tell her thank you for the cover and let her know I
used to work with her mother at the Credit Union. She sent a note back to say she was going
away for a couple weeks, but would come to visit when she returned. She did and we had a very nice visit. In September 2002, Joni began working at
Three Rivers as a receptionist and worked there until January when they had
cutbacks. Joni comes to see me every day
and makes sure things are good for me.
She is my voice since I have trouble getting my words out. She sure is faithful to me. One of the CNA’s has become friends with Joni
and their friendship has grown deep.
Marsha is a single girl who lives at home with her mother, Diane. I am not sure what all is going on, but
Marsha isn’t happy living there. There
are too many issues between her and her mom from a bad past. One day, Joni comes in and tells me Marsha
has moved into Spring Ponds with her and they are going to share all the
expenses. I hope it works out for the
best. It will be good for Joni to have
someone around and I won’t have to worry about her living alone. All seems to be going well when Joni tells me
she has to go get all the rent we paid ahead from the sale of the houses. The state wants to know where all the money
went before they start paying for my stay here.
Peggy & Barry offered Joni a trailer behind their house so they can
keep an eye on her and I won’t have to worry about her. In May 2004, Joni and Marsha moved to
Borden. Joni came back to work at Three Rivers, only this
time in the Activities Department. I get
to see her every day, but it’s not the same because she doesn’t get to spend
quality time with me. She comes to see
me every morning to say good morning and give me a kiss, and stops every
evening to say goodnight. She works so
hard and is so stressed by the end of the day that she just wants to go
home. Plus, she is there extra hours for
special occasions like Supper Club or live entertainment. She is always doing extra things for the
residents. She worked in Activities for
two years and then went back to the front desk as receptionist, which is what
she really enjoys doing. Isaac Williams became
the Administrator and her job became worse.
He kept putting a bigger workload on her and she became more and more
stressed. Her stress became worse and on
August 13th, Joni had a TIA and was rushed to the ER. Emoline, a CNA, found Joni standing in the
hallway by the Supervisor’s Office acting confused with her hand over her
heart. We thank Coleen Metarko for
saving her life that day. Coleen knew
exactly what to do; she gave Joni four baby aspirin and sent her to the
ER. We learned that day that’s what to
do for any signs of a stroke. There is a
3-hour window to get them to the ER for proper treatment. PJ, from corporate, yelled at the staff for
calling Coleen instead of the DON, which was Amy Krause. I did not know anything about any of this until
8:30PM when Peggy and Barry came in.
When it was happening, Joni kept saying, “Don’t tell my mom anything
yet,” and everyone abided by her wishes.
Marsha kept saying, “I’m so sorry Grandma, but I couldn’t say anything
until Peggy and Barry came in and we knew she was ok.” They kept her in the hospital for three days
for tests and observation. She came to
see me as soon as she was released from the hospital. She sent Becca in to get me. I was happy to see her and see that she was
ok. I went to the car to see her because
she didn’t want people hovering around her.
She came in on Monday to see Pam to get insurance papers for Dr. Mauer
to sign and she stayed in Pam’s office so she wouldn’t have to see Isaac. I think this was a warning sign for Joni to
either change jobs or change her hours so she doesn’t have to see Isaac. He is the main reason for her stroke since he
kept adding more work and stress on her.
As far as we are concerned, we will always hold a special place in our
hearts for Coleen Metarko for saving her life that day! Joni came back to work in September, but
decided in November to give her two weeks’ notice because the stress level is
never going to change. December 9, 2009
was her last day of work at Three Rivers.
She found out that being a widow, she can draw Social Security at 60 on
Rusty and so she is stepping out on a leap of faith that God will provide and
care for her from December 2009 through August 2010 when her Social Security
checks will begin. Joni does try to keep
things going between being here for me and her Avon. She always makes sure my birthdays and
Christmases are special. She goes once a
year to Louisiana to see Cheri, Jimmie and Traven and now she visits Danny,
Lisa and Billy in Florida. I miss her
when she is gone, but I also know she misses her kids and grandsons. Thank God I have Marsha here as part of my
life too. I have a special niece, Sandy,
that comes to see me once a week and she has been doing this since the
beginning of my stay here. My nephew,
Jim, and his wife, Sharon, come to see me once a month, on my birthday, and
Christmas. My other niece, Sherry who
lives in Owego, comes to visit me about every three months. Bill and I were very close to another niece,
Ellen and her husband, Skeet. Bill and I
spent Christmas with them when Roger was in the Navy and Joni was in
Germany. We lost that close feeling with
them after Bill died and I had my stroke.
Skeet has his own health issues and problems with his eyes, as well as
Ellen. Pauline and Jack come to visit
when they come up from Florida in the summer.
Denny and Mary Jane came to see me once in a while, even after Agnes
died, but I always get cards from them.
Peggy and Barry come to see me once in a great while. I wish Sarah would come see me more
often. She is a piece of my brother and
his pride and joy and she has grown into a delightful young lady. Patty comes to see me every time she is home
from Kansas, as does Becca when she is home from college. Scotty used to stop in and see me, but
doesn’t do that anymore when he is home.
When Jimmie, Cheri, and Traven come home to visit, they spend a lot of
time here with me. Rob used to stop by
when he was looking for his mom, but lately he has been popping in to say
hi. Lisa McMindes used to work here as
the weekend receptionist and I would go down to sit with her before church to
spend time with her and I would get to see Danny and Billy a lot. When she left, the three of them would stop
in whenever they were in the area, but now they have moved to Florida. I don’t see much of Roger and Nikki, but I
don’t say anything to them because I am happy when they do come to see me. I do wish they would come more often. I know that Joni feels like she is carrying
the load alone, but I don’t want people to come see me out of obligation; I
want them to come see me because they want to really see me and spend time with
me. Ty does stop by whenever he
can. He doesn’t have a license right now
so it is hard for him to get around. He
did come by and bring Jillian and her son, Denver, along with the new baby
before she moved to Florida.
