The Life and Times of Norma Elene Wilson-Marino-Underwood (1927 to now)

CHAPTER 1 (age from one to five and where I came from)

Born in Greenville, Pennsylvania on September 8, 1927 my mother was Thelma Rank Wilson, father was Francis Orie Wilson, my older brother was Orie Francis Wilson, he was one and a half years old when I was born.  At the time of my birth I was taken along with my brother to live with my father’s parents, Ella Belle Hicks-Wilson and Amos Webster Wilson.  They had four boys all grown.  My father was their youngest.  They always wanted a girl and there I was.  They were not so happy to get another boy but they took us both . 

At the time there was a severe depression, which made it impossible for our mother to care for us.  She worked in a laundry.  She eventually divorced my father and sometime later became one of the first women pilots. 

The earliest thing that I can remember is sitting on a pink blanket watching the corner of the blanket move because of the wind coming  in underneath the door.  i must have been less than a year old.  I remember it was cold.  the next thing I remember is piling all my blankets in the closet every night and sleeping on the floor freezing to death.  I walked in my sleep till I was about five years old.  I also remember that my tongue felt like it swelled up and filled my mouth at night while I was asleep.  Of course, it didn’t but it felt that way.  At three I had scarlet fever and almost died.  Perhaps that is why I never had any other childhood diseases.  That one took care of them all. 

At five I had my smallpox vacination for school and had a bad reaction, couldn’t walk for a couple months, had to be carried everywhere.  A few of the pleasant things I remember;  first is being on a sled  in a wooden box filled with blankets all snug and warm and being pulled over the snow by my grandpa who was wearing some kind of rubber boots that squeaked as he walked thru the snow.  Catching huge snowflakes on my tongue.  I also had fun sliding down the coal chute into the cellar which, unfortunately, terminated in a pile of coal.  Got in a lot of trouble for getting black with coal dust.  Never had a spanking in my whole life although I could have used one after more than one episode on the coal chute. 

Started first grade and I remember walking up the hill in back of the school holding hands with Freddie Woolworth.  He kissed me on the cheek.  I must have been impressed as he was my boyfriend until high school.  When a girl with long curls took him away from me.  I hated her. 

CHAPTER  TWO

We  relocated from Greenville P.  A.  to Albion Pennsylvania.  when I was four years old, the reason was that granddad worked for the B&LE  (Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad) and Albion seemed to be at the end of the line.  Coal was being transported from one point to another.  Everyone in that small town worked on the R.  R.  long trains went out full and came back empty. 

He was a conductor on freight trains for over fifty years - only one accident before he retired.  A wonderful man, had black lung from all the coal soot, died of a heart attack in his late eightys.  After he retired he was so bored that grandma said he paced the floor all day. 

There was a brewery across the street from their apartment and granddad got a job as a night watchman just to keep himself busy.  He could drink all the beer he wanted to and grandma wouldn’t know.  That worked well for awhile until one night he found a dead rat in one of the vats.  Needless to say it killed his desire to drink beer from the vats.  They had four sons the oldest was Darrel Milton next was Glen Robert, then Howard Owen and finally my father Francis Orie. 

The boys were each four years apart in age.  Darrel had four children two boys and two girls, Glen never married and lived at home with us, he lost his hearing when, as a joke, some of his friends at the R.  R.  where he was working called him close and blew the whistle so loud that it broke his eardrums.  I saw them in a small bottle, they had been removed.  He was sixteen at the time.  Afterwards while laying new railroad track Uncle Glen was holding the spikes while someone pounded them in, they missed or it bounced and his head was split open.  He was never quite the same, a mental problem called delusions of grandeur at the time. 

Glen had a rocking chair and as children he would rock us a lot.  He Could read and write so he read a lot and we would write down what we wanted to tell him.  He loved Orie and me.     

Howard had three sons the first from a previous marriage and two more fifteen years apart.  Francis(my father) was the most prolific of the boys, he had my brother and I and six more with his second wife, Marie (my best friend) he married her when I was ten and she was sixteen.  He was a pedophile. 

My first impressions of Marie was that she had big feet.  I was sitting in a chair watching her comb her hair while looking in the mirror.  I thought she was pretty but had big feet.  She was a neighbor of uncle Howards that had come to work in my fathers diner which he opened in Albion, had it for about a year, then sold it.  Albion was a small town where everyone knew everyone else.  Most of the town’s men worked on the railroad. 

During the depression grandpa earned a very good living - $120.  00 per week.  It was excellent considering you could buy 5 pounds of hamburger for a quarter.  All food prices were cheap by today’s standards, and yet people were still going hungry. 

I got a new pair of shoes every few weeks.  Socks were five cents a pair.  whenever I got new shoes I would give away my old shoes to some of my friends who had no shoes and were walking barefoot in the snow.  I got into trouble with my grandmother for giving things away. 

Grandma and I went to church every day and twice on Sunday.  She belonged to the W.  C.  T.  U.  which is Women’s Christian Temperance Union.  They were a group of women who went into bars and smashed up the places.  Yet I got into trouble for giving old shoes to children who were barefoot.  A church-goer but not much of a Christian.  Nevertheless she was a good woman, just prejudiced. 

I remember how excited I was when I graduated from the smallest chair in the Sunday school class to the next bigger one.  It was a big thrill at the time to be sitting in a larger chair.  I also remember putting my hand into a jar half filled with tobacco and told to grab a hand full and pull it out, the lesson was your hand cannot be removed till you empty your hand of tobacco (too bad I didn’t learn that lesson). 

Hot summer days having fun with  friends  running to the train station to look at the big board that would tell us when the trains were due to arrive.  I wanted to be sure to be beside the tracks when grandpas train came in.  He always threw something from the caboose for me when he saw me and my friends, like piece of candy or sometimes a nickel (not often)  The board in the station also told the crew when they were scheduled out.  There were no phones in the town, so in addition to the board there was a “call boy” who knocked on your door if you were scheduled out in the middle of the night.  You signed next to your name that you had been notified.  Things were simpler back then. 

Grandpa was a good cook.  He cooked for the train crew in the caboose, when grandpa was home he did all the cooking.  I liked the fact that he was the boss of the whole train.  Grandma couldn’t cook at all.  My father was a good cook too.  My father never held a real job.  He could sing and play any instrument by ear, no lessons.  Grandma played the piano using music books so she must have had lessons  at some point in time.  She also played a zither (old timmy stringed thing, don’t think they are around anymore). 

In Albion we had a huge sun porch.  One day some people came by and asked her if they could use the porch to give guitar lessons.  They would charge $1.  10  she would get the ten cents.  She made the deal, but only if I could have free lessons, they agreed.  It was only one day per week so it didn’t interfere with much.  I learned the lessons but had no talent for it. 

My talent was school.  I loved it and made all A’s in every subject.  I got awards for perfect attendance.  Never got sick, I’ve always speculated that scarlet fever took the germs away.  My brother, Orie, on the other hand, was always sick.  Had what grandma called swollen glands, now I know he had toncillitis. 

At the time she treated it with camphorated oil which didn’t cure it and smelled terrible.  He was always running away to the woods.  When he came home Grandma punished him by putting him down in the cellar with the lights out, when he pounded on the door from the top step, she would open the door with her hair down over her face and scare him.  I guess she thought it was funny.  No wonder he wet the bed till twelve years old and stuttered badly.  He looked a little silly at thirteen with a pipe stuck between his teeth to keep him from stuttering.  He had read it in a book, but it didn’t cure it, just helped a little.  He was an unhappy child, grandma never treated him badly when granddad was home so he never knew how cruel she was to him. 

I remember when I was six years old I saw my mother for the first time.  She sat me on the piano bench and looked at me for a long time then she said “I don’t know who you look like”.  That same day she took Orie to spend the summer vacation with her.  I always felt that she didn’t take me because I didn’t look like anybody. 

You have to be careful what you say to a child it can be  misconstrued.  I now believe Grandma would not allow her to take me.  I was always so happy to see Orie come home.  I missed him so much.  We became best friends more than most brothers and sisters.  The two of us and our cousin Earl were always together.  They ganged up on me but I loved it.  Uncle Howard, Earl’s father, had a little ford car that you had to start with a crank by inserting it into the front of the car.  After a lot of sweating and cussing it would finally start and away we would go the three of us kids in the rumble seat and uncle Howard and aunt Thelma in the front seat.  They would be hoping it wouldn’t rain and we would be hoping it would.  Every time we came to a hill he would throw it out of gear going down to save gas but sometimes it would stall out and it was back to the crank and cuss stage.  to say nothing of the danger of being hit in the rear by another crazy driver coming down the hill with his car out of gear also saving gas but unable to stop.  we all survived and we loved riding in that little rumble seat.. 

CHAPTER  3

Grandpa was getting ready to retire so they took a house in Erie to be closer to the rest of their children who already had moved there.  We kept the house in Albion and grandpa stayed there most of the time, grandma and I spent a lot of time traveling on the passenger train between the two houses. 

Meanwhile, my father and Marie were busy having one baby after another and wanted me to stay with them.  I really liked Marie, she was more like a sister because of her age.  I think father wanted me as a babysitter more than anything else.  I really didn’t care.  I liked Marie and it was fun to be there. 

Grandma was devastated as I was missing a lot of school, watching babies instead of going to school.  Orie was there too. 

At fourteen Orie fell in love with Marie’s sister Betty.  She was sixteen and married to a serviceman.  I skipped two grades and graduated early. 

The war in Europe escalated and finally we were in it. 

Our whole lives were changed almost overnight.  Father was an air-raid warden for a four block area.  When the whistles blew he would walk the area making sure every house was blacked out with no light showing anywhere.  No one was allowed out until the all clear whistle sounded. 

Orie, at fifteen, lied about his age and joined the Marine corp.  Spent his boot camp at Parris Island and then camp Lejune.  I wrote letters to about ten of his buddies and swore I was in love with each and every one of them.  It was my contribution to the war effort, keeping their moral up (ha-ha). 

My real boyfriend was Harry Mishrell who became my boyfriend in high school after I was dumped by Freddie Woolworth.  Harry was in the navy.  Everyone was joining the military.  No one left at home for us girls except the 4F guys who couldn’t pass the physical. 

Food was again a problem.  Families were issued food stamps according to the size of your family, blue stamps were for canned goods and red stamps were for meat.  Cigarettes were “roll your own”, if you could even buy the tobacco and papers.  I didn’t smoke at that time so it wasn’t a problem for me, but Marie did.  I remember she would buy English Ovals once in awhile.  They were imports from England.  Strange, maybe the English servicemen didn’t smoke as much as our guys did. 

Everyone was getting jobs to help the war effort.  FactOries were changing what they produced.  My first job was as a plane spotter.  I had to learn to identify all of the different kinds of planes, which was no problem for me.  However, sitting outside staring at the sky was too boring for me so I went to work for Lords.  They called all the women that worked there the Lords angels.  Don’t know what they manufactured before the war, but when I went to work there they made receiver and sender sets for the Army and Navy.  We took a box of square metal pieces, about an inch square, put a piece of quartz crystal in the middle, then gaged it, if it tested too high or low you would have to adjust it by grinding down the crystal with carborundum till it registered the right frequency.  I didn’t like that job either so I went to Zurns iron works where I found my nitch. 

I started on an assembly line where they made 105 mm artillery shells.  I got so good at my job that I became the Chief Inspector for the whole plant. 

Marie still worked at Lords.  Orie was still in the marines.  Dad was still a air raid warden and the war was still on.  It was winter time and snowing.  I went to work the night shift at Zurns.  One time after it had snowed all night, the snow covered all the exits.  It was two days before the National Guard had dug the city out.  Houses were literally buried. 

Unfortunately, during this storm Uncle Howard died, he had been in and out of the hospital several times with a bleeding ulcer.  Because of the roads being closed I don’t know how they got a casket but there it was in the parlor with uncle Howard in it and nothing to separate it from the rest of the house but a pocket door.  The custom was that someone had to sit up with the dearly departed all night, guess who volunteered?  ME.  Didn’t start out too bad until Aunt Thelma came downstairs with a blanket saying he was cold and when she went to cover him up he had a muscle spasm and sat up.  SCARED me half to death.  He was finally buried when the roads were passable. 

CHAPTER  FOUR

Marie’s sister 18 year old sister Betty wanted to go to the clubs drinking and dancing with all the 4F- guys.  didn’t seem to matter that she was married to an overseas soldier and had a young child.  The only problem she had was she didn’t want to go alone, so guess who she decided to take with her.  ME, and I was thrilled to be taken along, she dressed me in her clothes, did my hair and put makeup on me so I would look older.  No one knew she was taking me with her to the Parris Club.  The story was always that I was spending the night at her house to babysit her son. 

As we were sitting at the bar one night I was singing to the music that was playing when the guy next to me said what a great voice I had and would I like to audition for Les Browns band.  (Les Brown and his band of renown)  After the audition I was hired on a temporary basis, and took Marie with me to all the concerts as chaperone. 

My grandmother knew nothing of this, of course, just that we were going to a lot of different concerts all over Pennsylvania.  She said Marie was a bad influence but she didn’t know what we were really doing.  My father knew since he was driving us to these concerts. 

Grandma had the upper hand over him as it was her car.  Soon it was so long to my musical career.  I was crushed, but one good thing was in my travels I met Louis Prima’s band and fell in love with the alto sax player.  One sided affair, I fell in love a lot, for short periods of time.  Prima’s band played the golden ballroom for three nights and for three nights I had dinner and dancing with the alto sax man.  When they left town Marie and I would stay up till one in the morning to hear them on the radio. 

Back to Marie’s sister Betty and how she did me a big favor.  At the bar she would always order me a drink and told me that to appear older I should drink it.  Well I don’t remember how many drinks I had, but all at once I was so sick.  I had just met a very nice guy, there was an alley out in back of the club  where the guy walked me up and down as I puked my guts out.  I decided right then that I would never drink again and I never have.  After that incident, I wouldn’t go to the club with Betty anymore.  My father finally got a real job, not singing and playing the guitar in clubs, but driving a cab.  He worked nights so that made it nice for Marie and me. 

We would get their kids all bathed and put to bed then we could sit on the front porch to watch the people walk by.  That is where I first saw Leonard Marino.  We would make comments about everyone that passed by as a fun thing.  Marie said, ”look at that good looking guy” and I said what guy.  The next time he passed she pointed him out to me.  He was tall, about 5-11 with black hair muscular build and handsome, wearing a paratroopers uniform. 

Obviously he was on leave and lived somewhere nearby as he walked by often during the next week.  Then we didn’t see him anymore.  Marie always looked for him.  About a month later at around ten o clock at night who should my father bring to the house but the good looking paratrooper, who he had picked up in his cab from the train station.  He was home on leave due to the death of his father.  I was told that his father had owned a small grocery store only a block away from our house.  I didn’t know his father and had never been to his store, I only knew his name was Tony and he lived in a house behind the store. 

After his fathers funeral and the disposition of his father’s personal things, he would come by once in awhile to say hello.  He had a younger brother also named Tony who Lenny called worm.  It seemed to be a pet name from one brother to another. 

I only saw Tony a couple of times.  The brothers didn’t seem to get along very well.  They didn’t look anything alike.  Tony was short about five foot, slim with curly hair and bad acne.  From what I was told their mother died when Tony was born.  She was from Ireland first generation in this country.  Father Tony was directly from Italy.  Lenny didn’t tell me anything about his family.  Other than what I just stated.  Maybe he had relatives I don’t know. 

The war was over and Lenny was discharged.  Saw him a lot as dad brought him home frequently for dinner.  He had a very good friend that he had known for many years who told me that Lenny did not drive or own a car due to some sort of accident, where someone was killed.  He never owned a car or had any desire to get one. 

He asked me to marry him and although I wasn’t real sure that I wanted to, Marie said I should.  So I agreed.  We got the marriage license and agreed to marry sometime in the future. 

A nice spring day and I am outside on a ladder washing the windows wearing a pair of blue jeans and a baggy sweater when he arrived and said “come on we are getting married”.  I said wait till I change clothes and he said NO come right now.  So we went to an Aldermans office and got married.  I was so upset I asked him if we could get the dog a license while we were at it.  His friend had driven us there and when we got back to my house he dropped me off and said he would be back later.  Marie called her aunts and a lot of other people to help us celebrate.  We waited till after one in the morning and he didn’t show up so they all went home.  When he finally did come home he had been drinking and said his friends had thrown him a party.  What a way to start a marriage. 

CHAPTER  5

Things went pretty smoothly for the first year, I was pregnant Three months into the marriage and was really looking forward to a child.  Went into labor April 4^th and baby didn’t arrive till april 7^th.  It was a very hard labor and delivery.  The baby girl died during the birth.  Cord around the neck.  They didn’t tell me about the baby as I was in bad shape. 

They put me into a private room and a nurse made a mistake and brought me someone else’s baby.  Of course, they had to tell me that my baby had died.  I took it very badly and was in the hospital for five weeks.  

Lenny took care of all the funeral arrangements The next two years I was trying to get pregnant and finally did.  Lenny was happy too, so all seemed great. 

We had our own apartment, Lenny worked at G.  E.  in the foundry, a very hard job but he didn’t seem to mind.  His clothes got filthy and I had a scrub board to wash them, he took over washing the clothes when I became pregnant.  I was standing in front of the sink washing dishes when my water broke, Lenny was in the living room and ran to throw a towel on the floor under me. 

All excited we were off to the hospital, another long hard labor but it was worth it.  A healthy baby boy.  Dad feel asleep during my labor because he was sitting next to a heater.  It made me extremely angry.  Not his fault but I was in pain so how dare he sleep!!! We now have Leonard Frank Marino(father) and Leonard Nicholas Marino (baby) we also have an over protective mother who will go strictly by the book to make sure nothing will happen to her baby. 

This baby cried ALL the time, the book said feed every four hours 4oz.  and that’s what I did, not an ounce more or a minute too soon.  Gosh now I know why he cried so much, he was hungry.  As if ALL his crying wasn’t enough, father Lenny got a strep throat and was in the living room on the couch acting like a baby, as all men do when they are sick.  Get me this and get me that, on top of the baby crying, it’s a wonder I didn’t throw both of them right out the window. 

When everyone got well and I fed the baby a little more food things got somewhat better. 

When Thanksgiving rolled around we decided it was time for little Lenny to sit in his high chair and eat whatever he wanted.  He ate so much of everything we literally could not get him out of the chair.  It was one that you had to lift the tray over the babys head.  Well good luck his stomach had him wedged in.  It was the start of a good appetite that has lasted till today. 

I must have been starving him since birth.  So much for the book. 

We became friends with Kay and Kenny Bliss.  Ken knew Lenny as a drinking buddy and I knew Ken as an usher from a movie theater that I used to go to. 

They had a little boy the same age as our son and were going to Miami Florida,.  where Kays family lived.  Lenny made arrangements for us to go with them and stay with them till we could find work and our own place. 

Kay and I were not getting along because of the kids.  We got our own apartment but Lenny couldn’t find a job, spent too much time in the bars, so we went back to Erie. 

He went back to work for General Electric.  He tried to re-enlist in the service but couldn’t.  Was written up in the paper as a person who wanted to re enlist but was refused.  Things were not going well for us. 

 We went to the Vets club every weekend  and had a good time but Lenny insisted that I drink and I would not.  He would say, ”are you too good to drink with us” and I would say nothing but would not drink what he had ordered for me.  I would go to the bar and get a coke.  We always sat with a few other couples and when one of the men offered a cigarette to me Lenny would say “my wife doesn’t smoke”. 

Of course I would always take the cigarette and choke trying to smoke it.  That really showed him, I’m the one that can’t breathe now.  He never did smoke cigarettes, he smoked a pipe occasionally.  I only smoked because he said I couldn’t and I would have done anything to annoy him.  Thought I might be pregnant again and wasn’t sure how I felt about it, so I didn’t tell anyone.  I could always tell when he was going out for the night as he would come home from work and start an argument about anything.  Then he could slam out of the house on the pretext of being angry.  I had him all figured out. 

One day there came a knock on the door and a man was asking to speak to Mrs.  Marino.  He said his name was James Inneman and he was having a problem.  Seems he worked the night shift and every time he came home early he found my husband there with his wife Betty.  He said he was going to divorce Betty and was going to leave Betty and their six kids for Lenny to take care of, and, by the way, would I testify at his masters hearing?  In Pennsylvania, in order to get a divorce you had a masters hearing in six months.  I said no, I would not and I never saw him again.  They were divorced, I divorced Lenny and I heard they were married sometime later.  When I went to the hospital to give birth to Renee, guess who was in the next bed after just giving birth to a baby.  BETTY INNEMAN.  When I found out who she was, seeing Lenny there, I was livid, got out of bed went to the nursery to get my new baby, Renee.  I called a cab, went home to grandmas house to pick up my son and went home. 

Chapter 6

As I said, previously, you must be careful what you say to small children.  Lenny, at 4 years old was told that he was getting a little brother or sister to play with.  A couple days after Easter he fed Renee the ear of his chocolate bunny, then put her in his wagon to take her out to play.  Thank goodness I heard the thump, thump of the wagon going down the stairs.  We lived on the third floor.  Renee was saved and he was told she had to get bigger before she could go outside with him to play.  Whew!!

I became friends with the girl in the next apartment named Dottie, she was a single parent with a little girl named Patty, the same age as Lenny.  She had a friend come to visit her from Miami.  Her friend, named Dolly, had an apartment and said we could come stay with her while I looked for a job. 

What a big step for me- a single parent with a 4 year old and an infant.  Dolly had her return airline ticket and you didn’t have to pay for a baby so she decided that she would take Renee on the plane with her and Lenny and I would take the bus.  It was a  good plan, but since the bus would take much longer, grandma would keep Renee two days till Dolly was ready to pick her up and take her on the plane. 

So Patty, her mom Dottie, Dolly and baby Renee would be at the bus station to meet us when we got there.  How crazy is that, I must have had a lot of guts and been very short on common sense.  Dollys’s apartment was small but we all slept everywhere.  Dolly bought the baby a playpen to sleep in and I would wake up and find some drunk she had brought home with her playing with my baby.  It wasn’t working. 

 Dottie rented us a small house that was partially furnished.  She found a job almost immediately with an airline and also found day care.  Dolly got me a job where she worked as a cocktail waitress, “The Casbah”.  It was a pretty big club where I met Bill Underwood, he was the Bartender.  Since I didn’t drink it was very hard for me to tell one drink from another.  Bill said I was the worst waitress he ever saw but he helped me all he could. 

I didn’t have a car, Bill drove me to find daycare for the kids which was a big problem as where they took care of older children they were not equipped to take care of infants.  So I had my kids in two different places.  Lenny was in a childrens bording house that had rooms in the back for the mothers to live in.  it was run by a man and his wife that were retired college professors.  Mrs and Mr Avery.  Lenny was their first student and I really didn’t have any way to check on their credentials.  The children had bunk beds inside the main house, and a good sized play yard.  Working three jobs I didn’t see Lenny every day and he was unhappy.  he   told me that he was  sitting under a picnic table and was stung by a bee.  Bill would bring me to pick him up and take him to breakfast every couple days. 

I worked three jobs, right around the clock.  Casbah from 8pm till 5am.  Deala Bra sportswear from 7am till 3pm and then to work at the Town restaurant from 4pm till 7pm during their dinner hour.  After that I started all over again. 

My job at Deala Bra was cutting threads from the finished sportswear with a small pair of scissors that we had to purchase from them.  One day the owner of the plant came to where I was working and called me into his office.  He asked me if I was having a problem as I was cutting holes in a lot of his goods that had to be discarded.  He asked if I was having a problem at home and when he discovered that I was working three jobs he said ”look when you get sleepy go into the lounge and take a nap, or sleep the whole shift, I don’t care, but you are costing me MONEY.  I told him that the supervisor wouldn’t like that.  He said he owned the business and to do it.  So I did. 

A couple weeks later he came to me and said that I couldn’t work in the plant any longer and I thought I had been fired.  It turned out that he wanted me to be one of the models at his up coming fashion council show on Miami beach.  What a whirlwind of excitement.  A wardrobe made especially for me hair to be done at J.  Baldi, all kinds of pictures for the magazines.  Wow, I really thought I hade it made until I realized that $100 per hour is great money but after the show you earn nothing until the next job. 

As they say, don’t quit your day job I had a lot of fun, but it was hard work too.  I was what they called a buyers model, the buyers come into the room and want to see a certain piece of clothing on a real person.  you spend the day changing from one outfit to another.  I did get a few advertising jobs after that -- sitting on a velvet swing high up in the air at the home show was one.  Advertising for the Turtle Club was another.  The jobs were too far apart to really make a living doing that full time. 

That was how I met Marie Stinger she was absolutely beautiful, looked exactly like Marilyn Monroe, she got a lot of work and found some for me. 

I was unhappy spending so much time away from my children, especially Lenny who needed his mother to be with him.  When Bill Underwood asked me if he would get a house would I like to stay at home with the kids and all that he would expect would be one cooked meal a day.  I jumped at the chance to have my baby (now nine months old) and my little boy, Lenny at home with me. 

To be a mother was all that I ever wanted and although I didn’t love Bill I would try to make a nice home for all of us.  He taught me to drive and let me use his car while he was sleeping, that was a plus, we could go to the beach every day.  Also I didn’t have to work so I could spend all my time with Lenny and Renee.  Things were very good. 

Chapter 7

Bill and I were married a year later and bought a small house in North Miami.  It was small but it seemed large at the time. 

Orie was working in a stressful job for Bucyrus Erie that manufactured large equipment.  He became very ill and they gave him a leave of absence to rest, he came to visit me and stayed. 

Eventually he was found to have a hyper-thyroid condition and it was removed many years later when he was in Alaska.  A year after we had bought that first house dad and Marie moved down with all their kids, stayed with me too for about a week. 

The little house was bulging at the seams they found a house to rent and dad got a job with the Yellow cab company.  One year later grandma and granddad moved to Miami too.  Bill bought them a house, not too far away from our house and he paid cash for it.  Also a small house but big enough for them and uncle Glen.  Now my whole family is here with me. 

Lenny started first grade that year and the school was situated between our house and grandma’s house.  Every time I would drive by the school on my way to grandmas I would see Lenny outside playing on the playground.  When I asked the principal why this was, he said Lenny finished his work so quickly and it was all correct, he then would disturb the rest of the students, so they would send him outside to play.  While inside he also found a way to disturb other classes, when walking in a line in the hallway he would run his pencil along the air vents, making noise in all the classrooms, therefore distracting all the kids. 

Once when I was called to school about one of Lenny’s escapades I was told what an exceptional child he was and I should be very proud of him.  My response was if he’s so great, why am I in school at least once a week.  The principal told me all teachers are lucky if they get the privilege to have a student like him.  Never quite understood that. 

Back to grandma and granddad; there was a small grocery store and a couple other shops on the corner which grandpa would walk to.  He would buy a six pack of beer and drink it carrying Lenny on his shoulders back past our house on his way home.  I always yelled about him carrying Lenny on his shoulders, but he loved Lenny and he would do it anyhow. 

I went to their house daily to make sure they were alright and if they needed anything.  One day when I arrived I saw granddad sitting in a chair in front of a fan saying he couldn’t breath.  I called an ambulance and took him to the hospital, he died two days later of heart failure.  He was in his late eighties.  Very bad thing, relocating old people, they don’t do well. 

Uncle Glen had a couple strokes in Erie before they came to Miami and he had another stroke after they came to Miami so he was bedridden.  grandma had her hands full with caring for him but insisted on keeping him at home with her.  I would go over and take him out to bed and sit him in a chair by the bed and come back in an hour to put him back in bed.  I did that for a couple months till I realized he was too heavy and I was afraid I would drop him.  He was deaf and because of the strokes he lost his ability to speak. 

After granddad died Bill wanted to add a room to our house so that grandma could have her things and I could care for her and Glen but she said she couldn’t stand kids anymore and I told her I couldn’t get rid of my kids so the additional room was out. 

This is the time that is so hard to write about as so much was happening at the same time.  Orie was still living with me. 

Bill had some friends who I met, Red Vaught and his wife Charles Anne Charlie.  (must have wanted a boy) who when I first met them I didn’t know exactly what they did for a living.  Charles Anne had been a card dealer at the C club around the corner from the Casbah, and that is where Bill had met them.  I found out later that they ran an illegal racing dissemination outfit.  Not federal as you can by a gambling stamp with the address where you are doing business and you have no federal problem but when you give the feds your address the state will come and arrest you as it is was illegal by state law  Racing dissemination is not actually gambling, it was giving out the race results as quickly as possible, to the bookmakers, so they could know what they could cover on the next race.  Getting the results quickly was a very tricky situation. 

Orie was working for Red at the race track and he was all wired up with batteries around his waist to transmit the results as they came in.  He was standing next to a Pinkerton man wearing a directional finder wrist watch, he sent out the signal right beside him and never got caught.  The Pinkerton guy kept looking past him.  One time Orie got severe burns when one of the large radio batteries shorted out. 

Another person that they used to get results was Ralph Shea. Ralph would float in a fishing boat near Hialeah race track using the fishing pole as an antenna.  Too many stories to tell.  After the person gets the results transmitted to the home station that person (Bill) would call a list of bookmakers who have paid to get the results as fast as possible.  The more you pay the farther up on the list you go.  First on the list was best. 

We met Bill Caudell, an ex cop who was a great person, very likeable.  Bill had a wife Jeannie who was a story in herself. 

Well on to the next person.  First let me tell you a little more about Charles Anne (Charlie) she was a little person, about 5ft 1 about 90 lbs.  with red hair and very pretty.  Also had a bad temper. 

One instance that I remember was a Christmas party being held at their house in Hialeah.  Lots of people were there, most of which were strangers to me, as the party was drawing to a close and all the gifts were exchanged, Red called everyone out on their porch as he was going to give Charlie her Christmas gift. 

When she took her hands from her eyes there was a brand new Studebaker car with a big red ribbon parked in the driveway.  She said not a word but went right to the car, got in and backed it up then floored it and ran it into a tree, with such force it smashed the whole front end in.  She got out of the car, walked over to him and calmly said “you know I hate Studebakers” Everyone there was stunned and Red was embarrassed. 

That was just how Charlie was and people that knew her accepted that.  Red was pretty off the wall too.  He had bought four hunting dogs and had them trained, he told them to “load up “, when they didn’t he shot all of them right there. 

We were all going to their horse ranch one day with the three guys in the front seat and Charlie and I in the back seat.  Charlie was taking her shotgun out there for some reason, she had it between her legs pointed at the ground when she accidentally pulled the trigger and almost shot off her toe.  Well I suppose you know the guys in the front seat thought their days were over.  We laughed about that for a long time even though it really wasn’t funny. 

The ranch on Sundays was a lot of fun, Charlie had the biggest frying pan I had ever seen, you could cook a dozen eggs in it at the same time.  she cooked breakfast for everyone every Sunday, while the guys were building a tree house in a big banyan tree. 

Grown men acting like kids.  That tree house was better than some houses I’ve seen.   I wish I had taken a picture of it.  Red had horses out there so between riding, eating, and building, everyone had a good time.  They also had four drakes for protection.  Those Geese were more dangerous than any watchdogs.  No one came on the ranch unless they were with Red or Charlie.  They were really bad. 

Back when I was at Charlie’s Christmas party I met a middle aged woman named Ruby, seemed friendly, and we talked a lot.  I thought she was in real estate as she was telling me she had a house she was selling in my neighborhood.  She was going to have an open house in a couple weeks and because it was so near to my house would I be interested in sitting there for a couple days, she would pay me.  I said I would, but I forgot to tell Bill about it, it didn’t seem important.  The day Ruby called and said the date was set for the open house I mentioned it to Bill.  Well, he told me he didn’t want me to associate with Ruby, when I asked him why he told me who she was.  On top of being Charlie’s friend she also was one of the top two madams in Miami.  Guess who the other top madam was….. CHARLIE, what a shock, they both ran call girl  operations.  Sorry, I liked them both.  They were really nice, both of them. 

Years later I read an article in a magazine that said Eugene(Red) Vaught was suspected to be a hit man.  WOW I thought I knew these people but I guess I didn’t.  Still they were my friends and I liked them.               

CHAPTER 82(my age)  DATE JULY 5, 2010.

Since my last chapter I was taken to the hospital with a lung problem -.  COPD.  I went in with a lung problem, came out with a lung problem, I also came out with HOOF AND MOUTH disease (swollen feet and thrush in the mouth from the antibiotic) I guess at my age you gotta be happy with what you get, it could be worse.  I have been in the hospital for the last five holidays, this time was eight days and I missed the fourth of July by one day.  WELL BACK TO THE BOOK, hope I live long enough to finish it. 

Chapter 8

Lots of turmoil in the little house on 127 street. 

Bill was working at the Tomboy Club as a bartender.

Orie was still working the race track for Red.

My father was being divorced.

Marie had cancer and was given six months to live and was trying to find a place for her kids(very sad)  Marie’s children stayed with her during this time.  Let me tell you about her kids (my half brother’s and sisters)

I’ll name them starting with the oldest to the youngest: 

Neil Wilson moved to California

Lois Wilson James had four kids, died in 2009 of COPD - smoked a lot.  Lived with her daughter in northern Florida. 

Douglas Wilson married a girl named Patty had two kids and was a phys.  Ed.  Teacher for a school in the Miami area. 

Dennis Wilson lived with Marie most of his life, never married. 

Cheryl Wilson, was married numerous times, don’t remember any of their names, she is a nurse in the Miami area.  She had two girls one was killed in a car crash while taking her friend home.  A drunk driver hit them, she was only seventeen years old.

Elorey Wilson was Marie’s youngest - he is a police officer with the north Miami police dept. 

In later years, Marie moved in with Lois and Lois’ daughter Shelly.  Marie finally died of cancer in her early seventies -certainly was a long six months.  She was sick much of her life and was fighting it all the way. 

I went to her house to see her when we knew she was dying.  We sat around her dining room table, talked about old times we had together.  Said we loved each other and in the next couple days she was gone.

Chapter 9

Uncle Glen died of a massive stroke.
 

Father moved in with grandma and at the end of each month he would get her to sign her Social Security check and he would keep the money and anything I would give her he would take too. 

He sold grandpas railroad ring that he was awarded for fifty years of service.  I couldn’t find it to get it back.  I hated him and never spoke to him again. 

He put grandma in a rest home, actually a good thing as she needed round the clock medical care.  The home put a stop to him coming and getting her checks as they were supposed to be for her care.  I don’t know where he went or when he died - nor do I care. 

Marie was there when grandma passed away and she took care of all the arrangements.  Marie after chemo etc. unbelievably lived twenty more years. 

Orie heard that there was a warrant out for his arrest for racing dissemination so he grabbed up Marie’s sister Betty and moved to Alaska.  She became a cook for a crew on the oil pipeline and Orie became the owner of a drive-in movie, glass bottom boats for sight seeing and some other crazy things, nothing worked. 

Betty and Orie split up and Orie met Fran, who had dog sled teams that she raced in the Iditarod.  She got rid of the dogs, they got married and came back to Florida.

Fran had two children Robert and Vicky.  Eventually they moved to Jessup, Maryland where her family lived.  Her daughter Vicky was very unhappy.  She was fourteen and felt that she had left all her friends in Alaska and didn’t like being in a strange place.  It was just before school started and Fran had bought Vicky a lot of new clothes even more than necessary thinking it would cheer her up about going to a new school.

  Orie was sitting in his office doing paper work as Vicky was trying on all of her new clothes and coming in to show him how they looked.  Fran was at work.  After seeing many outfits on her Orie heard a loud crash and he thought Vicky might have fallen off a chair or something so he ran to check on her.   He opened the door to find that she had shot herself.   No more details were ever given to me.  It was a very bad time for both of them. 

Fran was a CPA and Orie managed a grocery store.  Their remaining child Robert was a teenager and got along very well with Orie.  Robert was into all things about the civil war and Orie and Robert had a common interest. 

Orie came to visit me once from Jessup and went to visit our father who gave him a clock that had been grandmas.  It was a mantel clock that had to be wound.  It struck the time with a loud bong.  That clock was given to grandma and granddad when they were first married in the 1800’s.  I wrote the date on the back.  When Orie was little he used to sit and listen to it.

Orie took the clock back home with him - it meant a lot to him.  

Orie became more and more depressed about his health.  He couldn’t breathe - he had worked in a factory that wrapped hot water tanks in asbestos and the fibers invaded his lungs. 

One morning Fran went to work and Orie called the police telling them of his plan and ended his life with a single gunshot to the head.  When Orie died, Fran gave the clock to Robert saying that Orie wanted him to have it.  I felt that the clock was a family heirloom and wanted it kept in the family not with someone not in the bloodline.  For some reason they were thinking of its monetary value, I was not.  I offered to buy it and was told no.  So I cut ties with Fran and Robert and do not know what happened to them.  That was in 2004 or about that time.

Chapter 9

Meanwhile back on 127th street they were building a little strip of stores; a grocery store, a doctors office, a pet store and a small restaurant.  During the day electricians were installing all the wires for the grocery store, watched intently by a ten year old boy, Lenny.  When the workers left he decided to play electrician and pulled out all of the wiring that had just been completed.  He accomplished this either alone or with one of his buddies. 

The owner of the store, whose name was Frank, had come by to see how the work was coming along when he found Lenny in back of the store gathering up discarded soft drink bottles (for the two cent deposit). When asked if he had seen anyone around the wiring Lenny said yes, he was.  Frank brought Lenny to me to relate what he had done.  I was not happy having to pay to have it all redone.  Lenny never became an electrician. 

The doctors office was where I took Renee when she tripped on a grass runner and cut her eyeball, of course it was too severe for them to handle at that small clinic, so I took her to the hospital - where they stitched it up. 

The only problem was that she had been running around without any underwear beneath her dress when the accident happened.  She remembered her bare bottom freezing on the cold metal hospital crib bars years later, even as an adult.

The next store was a pet shop run by a lady with a small black poodle. that poodle was so ugly it shouldn’t have been called a poodle. 

The last store was the small diner which was run by two cousins from New Jersey, Frank Clark and his cousin.  Orie and I went there every Morning for breakfast as Bill was working nights and was sleeping in the morning.  Orie became very good friends with Frank and we would all go to the beach often.  Lenny, Renee, Frank, Orie and Me. 

It was so much fun.  Pretty soon I was in love again.  I decided to run away with Frank to New Jersey.   I packed up the kids , took all our money out of the bank and when Bill was at work we left.  What a horrible thing to do.  I no more arrived in N.J. when I changed my mind,  took my kids and flew back home to Miami. 

Crystal was about a year old and walking when we returned.  We found an apartment in North Miami beach.  That was where Crystal had her first episode of losing consciousness.  She was running around a table and just fell down and turned blue.  It scared me to death. I took her to many doctors and none of them could tell me why it had happened.  She had these spells frequently over the next few years.  It was never explained, but as suddenly as they appeared, they stopped. 

Bill took me back(don’t know why) and we bought a house at 3231 NW 154 terrace in Opa Locka, a suburb of Miami .

CHAPTER 9

All the houses in the new neighborhood were in different stages of construction.

Across the street lived Teddy and Beverly Boulos, and their two children, Rex aged five and Tina age four.

Next door to the Boulos’ lived Betty Paterson and her sons the oldest being George, don’t remember the other boys very well.  George and Lenny became good friends and even though George was a Kleptomaniac they got along pretty well.  

At middle school (junior high) they had jointly produced the comedy show as part of the schools talent night and called it the Marino—Patterson show, they were very funny.  Lenny had memorized a Bob Newhart monologue script about a driving instructor.  At the last minute one of the teachers asked him to substitute the name in the monologue for one of the Teacher’s names.  In front of the large audience at talent night, he got confused and alternated the names during the performance.  He still remembers that to this day.

Whenever George was leaving the house Lenny would make him empty his pockets and leave all the things his light fingers had picked up.  Poor George had a complex as every time he would arrive at the front door I would  yell “oh it’s only george” when I realized it was bothering him I stopped. 

George and Lenny almost undermined Betty’s house by digging a “bomb shelter” in the crawl space under her house.  Don’t know how she found out but I’m glad she did before her house collapsed. 

When they graduated from High School, George and Lenny got an apartment together in Fort Lauderdale.  One time after Christmas Lenny made the mistake of letting George go with him to the store, Lenny was exchanging a Christmas gift and they parted ways inside the store, after Lenny had conducted his exchange he went to the exit where he met George.

Apparently George had been busy stealing something and as he and Lenny both left the store together they were both grabbed up as partners in crime.  On the way to the police station I’ve been told that Lenny wanted to kill George for getting him arrested.  Charges were dropped against Lenny.

A few years later George met a girl who lived down the street from their apartment, married and moved to New York city where he became addicted to drugs.  I was told by Betty, his mother, that he had bought some drugs  that were bad and they killed him.  Lenny had been drafted into the Army at the time.

Beverly and Teddy Boulos were “colorful” people.  Teddy looked like a weight lifter with giant muscles and loved to walk around with a bath town wrapped around his waist.  Beverly had a BIG mouth.  I didn’t think they were so unusual at the time.  

They were bowling fanatics, went to the bowling alley almost every night and left Rex and Tina in their beds which made me nervous so I spent a lot of time going across the street to the kids window to make sure they were still sleeping.

Teddy rode a big Harley Davidson duo glide motorcycle.   Once as he was on his way to work on the motorcycle he passed a small car and got a strap from his overalls caught on the car’s door handle.  It pulled him off his motorcyle and he slid down I-95 on his face. 

What a mess he was. Road rash wasn’ t even the word for it.  Then there was the time when Lenny and Teddy, dressed in his towel, were horsing around and Lenny snatched Teddy’ s towel off. I didn’t see the whole thing but they were either outside of the house across the street or ran outside.   Teddy wound up naked outside the house and Lenny was too afraid to get close enough to him to give the towel back.

Beverly was a very good housekeeper she kept a very clean house, she would clean the house in the morning and put the kids out, they were out for the day, using our house for their bathroom trips.   But her house stayed clean.  Her son, Rex carved his initials on our toilet seat and Bev beat him, even though I said it was okay. 

Down the street lived Mr. and Mrs. Parker (Jack and Jo)    between their house and our house lived a woman ALSO named Norma.  She and Jo Parker hated each other.

One day they got into a hair pulling battle in front of our house and Lenny learned not to try to separate two fighting females as it can lead to you getting beat up too.  Actually it was pretty funny.  Norma had her hair all up in pin curls and Jo was jerking them all out. They were battling over the rocks that Jo had in front of her house.   I found out later that the cause of the fight, someone had taken all of the rocks and piled them on the sidewalk.  The deed, we found out later was actually done by MY kids Renee and Crystal who had taken them and piled on the sidewalk.   Jo said that Norma’s kids had done it.   Norma said they didn’t.   Of course,  Jo liked Renee, Crystal and me so therefore Norma’s kids  must have done it.

I liked both of them even if they didn’t like each other.  Renee and Crystal would go down to Jo’s house when she was working (at the courthouse) go up on her porch in front of her window and aggravate her dog Ti-Ki.  The dog, in a fit of rage, would then tear up their couch. That dog sat on the couch just inside the window.  wish I had known it at the time I would have made them stop. Found out a couple years later.

CHAPTER 10

The Tomboy Club closed and Bill was out of a job. 

Working for Bill Caudell disseminating the races was a way to make a living.  Bill Caudell was an ex cop and a very likable person.  He and Red Vaught were good friends.  Bill Caudell ran an illegal gambling operation, the Cuban “numbers”, also known as “Bolita”. 

Our home was raided for violating Florida law (racing dissemination). Bill was arrested and got a year in jail for the conviction. 

Well there I am was three kids, husband in jail and no job.  I went looking and finally found a job as a bookkeeper at R &J Electric.  R&J was a one girl office, an electrical contractor. 

The owners name was Joe White and he did not know how to run a business as he kept his business and personal accounts together.  Needless to say he went bankrupt. 

Out of a job, I went next door to Herrods aviation.  They shipped used airplane parts overseas.  That also was a one girl office.  Nice old man Captain Herrod, holding the business together by a thread, always waiting for the payment due from the last overseas sale. 

I Met Lou Palombi who was an Opa Locka police  officer when he came in to have some electrical work done.  YOU GUESSED IT I WAS IN LOVE AGAIN.  Captain Herrod went bankrupt and I was again looking for a job.

While I was working at both of these two jobs I would eat at the same restaurant every day, so got to know everyone, especially one waitress, ISABELLE.

Isabelle was having a medical problem that she was going to have to be hospitalized for but she was afraid she would loose her job.  Meanwhile. I had found employment on the Opa Locka Coast Guard base to replace the bookkeeper who was retiring.  I was hired to replace her when that date came.  It was a Good job so I was willing to wait the month. 

I covered for a girls vacation at Ceeb bathing suit, which took a week of my time and still had three weeks left. 

Back to Isabelle, she said I knew everyone and Norman the owner liked me so would I please fill in for her then she would be assured her job when she got out of the hospital.  Of course I said yes. 

Took up a collection for hospital flowers and was happy to do her the favor.  Three days before my due date to start my new job I had not seen Isabelle.   I heard she was out of the hospital and doing well. 

I went to the base to check on my job and was astounded to find out that Isabelle had gone to them and told them that I no longer could take the job and had recommended her as the replacement.  I was at her door in about an instant to find out why she would do such a thing and was told that the Doctor  had told her to find a different job not standing on her feet.  Poor excuse for a stab in the back. 

I wasn’t too broken up as I really liked working at Pennmans Diner and made a good living, knew absolutely everyone and I was in love again. 

I answered the door one evening and who should be there but Isabelle with a stack of books, she asked if I would show her how to do the books, she had no idea what to do.  Of course I laughed at her and said no.  I will say she had guts.  I could never have done that to anyone.  She probably got fired I don’t know, I never heard from her again. 

Bill was out of jail, Lenny, a high school Freshman, was working at the Turnpike Drive-in  movie theatre taking tickets and working the concession stand. 

Renee was busy hanging out with the wrong people and literally driving me nuts.  Told her to mop the kitchen floor while I was at work and she brought the backyard hose in and dumped a box of soap powder on the floor then tried to get rid of the soap with the water from the hose.  Meanwhile all the tile lifted off the floor. 

Another one of my brainy children was told to clean out a flower bed next to the steps by the front door as everyone threw papers etc.  in the bushes there.  Being as I had recently spent a lot of time and money making it look nice I wanted to keep it that way.  Early in the morning I told Lenny to make sure he cleaned that out before I got home in the afternoon. 

Driving into my driveway after work I noticed a huge pile of debris along side the road.  Upon closer scrutiny I recognized a couple of my newly planted bushes all wilted and broken in the pile.  Yep, he cleaned it out alright, every thing was gone and it was clean.  Just what I had asked him to do. 

After I screamed a lot, I bought new plants and bushes and decided to clean it out myself if it ever needed it.  Now on to my third nutty kid, Crystal she was busy terrorizing the neighborhood boys. 

It was just after Christmas when everyone was throwing their Christmas trees away and Crystal was busy retrieving them which she dragged to the nursery on the corner as she was building a fort with them.

Knock- knock on the door, Lenny answered, two boys about thirteen or fourteen years old stood there and said that girl was beating them up over some trees.  Lenny laughed at them for allowing a six year old girl to beat them up.  By the way, she kept all the trees, they didn’t get any of them.  Rex, Tina and Crystal had their fort. 

Back at home Bill was still out of a job and not really looking too hard, Waiting for someone to come to the door and hand him one I guess. 

Lou Palombi had two teenage sons, one named Bobby and one named Gary, bobby was about sixteen and Gary was about eighteen.  Gary enlisted in the service and Lou was going to his graduation, he asked me to go with him but I said I wouldn’t leave my kids for the three days he would be gone. 

When he came back Bobby told me it was nice to see his mother and father together again.  Estelle was his first wife and the mother of the boys.  She had gone to the graduation also.  She was living in Pennsylvania at the time, as were Lou’s parents.  The boys had been living with their mother until they came to stay with Lou about a year before Gary went into the service.

Lenny and Bobby became friends.  Lou’s mother, father and sister moved to Opa Locka then went back to Pennsylvania To visit. 

Lenny and George got their first apartment after high school and Renee got her first car, 1957 Chevrolet Red.  Lenny had gotten a little MG sports car and Crystal a horse.

Chapter 11

Well this will be my last chapter so I will wrap up what has happened in everyone’s life so far as I know it. 

First off Lou remarried his first wife (the boys mother) and died a couple of years later. He tried to start another relationship with me but I was smart enough to say no.  Wish I had been smart earlier.

Bill Underwood was discovered to have a cyst on his brain which was removed with surgery, he had numerous strokes before they found it.

My Cousin Earle died

Lenny retired from the Army and is doing well, physically and mentally. Doing what he loves to do, travel the world, and eat gourmet food with a smart, beautiful wife by his side.

Lenny’s two children are also living a good life, even though both are suffering with M.S. they are dealing with the illness, they each have one child.  I’m so proud that I contributed my genes into such great, loving, and smart descendants.  

Renee died of cancer  on December 6 2009 and was happy till the end.

Renee’s two boys, who I pretty much raised myself - Gary is managing a furniture store and is doing well works 24-7- but doesn’t seem to mind. He has one child that he has dual custody of and all seems to be going fine. 

Renee’s oldest son, James, is in prison for selling drugs.  Finally is off drugs.  For someone so intelligent, I don’t know how he wound up a junkie.  I’m proud of him now and I know Renee is seeing him now and is proud too. 

Crystal’s daughter Jessica is another intelligent one but she seems to make a lot of poor decisions.  She became a single mother at 17 by her own choice.  She has a little girl now, a toddler – Aubrey – who is the love of my life.

Crystal’s oldest son Mark got married to Carrie. Doing well working as a security guard for the Hard Rock Casino. Crystal’s youngest is Cody, a typical sixteen year old, either knows everything or nothing, take your pick    

Crystal is always the one in-charge.  She works everyday and still finds time to take care of family, including her mother, me.  She moved me into her house so it would be easier for her to check on me. I am very grateful. Not everyone has kids that care and I have Lenny and Crystal.

I will always miss Renee to talk to but I will live the rest of my life vicariously and hope for good outcomes in everyone’s lives.  I have nothing to will to anyone so I will leave you all my love.

Mother Underwood