Michelle Cox's Blog, page 35

She Was Crowned Western Electric’s “Beauty Queen” for 1929!

Vera Kadlec was born on August 10, 1909 in the village of Orlov, which is situated between Pilsen and Prague in the now Czech Republic.  Vera’s father, Andel Blaha, was the mayor of Orlov, and her mother, Vlasta Doubek, cared for their six children, of whom Vera was the oldest.  Vera attended grammar school and then quit to help her mother at home.

When Vera was around fourteen years old, there was a terrible fire in Orlov, and the Blaha’s home burned almost to the ground.  Almost everything they owned was lost.  Having to start all over, they decided they would start over in America.  Andel repaired the burnt shell of their home as best he could and took Vera with him to America to get things arranged for the rest of them to follow.

Upon arriving in New York, Andel made his way to Chicago, where an aunt and uncle lived at St. Louis and 28th.  Andel found a job right away making furniture, and Vera got a job at Western Electric.  After two years of working and saving, they sent for the rest of the family.  Vera and Andel picked out an apartment near Komensky Avenue and 30th in Lawndale and bought second-hand furniture to decorate it.  By the time Vlasta and the rest of the children arrived, it was finished, and they were all very proud of it.

Vera continued working at Western Electric and eventually met Dusan Holub at a dance in Pilsen Park.  Dusan was the son of Czech immigrants and had been born in Vienna.  He worked as a meat salesman for several companies, including Oscar Meyer later in life.  Dusan lost no time in proposing to Vera, and they were married shortly after when Vera was just seventeen.  They got an apartment at Lawndale and Crawford Ave., and Vera soon had a son, Dusan, Jr.

After only a couple of years, however, Dusan and Vera’s relationship soured due to Dusan’s excessive drinking, and Vera became very unhappy.  One day when she was getting her hair done, she confided to her hair dresser, Marie, that she wanted to divorce Dusan but that she couldn’t because she had no money.  Marie told her not to worry, that she would give her a job at the beauty shop.

Vera, it seemed, had beautiful skin and hair and had even been crowned the “beauty queen” at Western Electric in 1929.  Marie rightly figured that Vera could easily sell beauty products to her customers, which is indeed what she did.  Marie’s clients were always commenting on Vera’s beauty and consequently would inquire as to which beauty products she used, making it easy to sell to them.  Over time, Vera also learned how to cut and style hair and to give permanent waves and thoroughly enjoyed her new career.

A couple of years after her divorce, Vera met Stephen Kadlec who was a soda pop distributor and then a beer distributor after prohibition ended.  They married sometime in the early 1930’s, and Stephen adopted Dusan, Jr., who was about four or five at the time.  After their marriage, Stephen did not want Vera to work outside the home, so she gave up her job in Marie’s shop, but continued to do hair for family and friends.  Stephen and Vera had a child, Stephen, Jr. not long after they were married.  Theirs was apparently a good marriage, and Vera was a very social, happy woman.  She loved talking with neighbors and friends and was an active member of the Ladies Aid at her church as well as Sokol and other Czech clubs.

In 1976, however, her husband, Stephen, died suddenly of kidney and heart failure.  For a while she lived alone in their home in Berwyn until her son, Stephen Jr. came back to live with her.  He apparently had a lot of problems, though, and eventually committed suicide.  Vera does not seem to have fully accepted this, as she still speaks of him as if he were alive.

In recent years, Vera has been relying more and more on Dusan, Jr., who has gotten in the habit of calling Vera every day to make sure she takes her medication.  Her confusion has gotten worse as time has gone on, and she has had a series of falls.  Dusan finally made the decision after her last fall to admit her to a nursing home, as he says he cannot possibly care for her.  He is currently overwhelmed with caring for his wife, who has recently been diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s, a sick uncle, and his birthfather, Dusan Holub, with whom he has had limited contact with on and off over the years and who is also now in a nursing home.  Still, he tries to visit Vera as often as she can.

Vera is delighted to see Dusan, but is sad and upset when he does not take her home with him, which almost makes the situation worse.  She does not understand that this is her home now.  She is confused much of the time, though she is a lovely, sweet woman.  She is apprehensive most of the time and continually repeats to any staff member she encounters or even to other residents, “I’m lost.  Can you help me?”

Originally written: November 1994

The post She Was Crowned Western Electric’s “Beauty Queen” for 1929! appeared first on Michelle Cox.

He Ran the Farm When He Was Only 12!

Joseph Wagner was born on July 6, 1912 in Lake Zurich, Illinois to Eckhart Wagner and Klara Schwartz, both of whom were born in Germany.  Eckhart came over with his father, and they eventually bought a dairy farm together near Lake Zurich.  They sold milk and eggs in town, and at the end of the year, any extra spending money from the sale of the eggs was used for Christmas gifts.  At some point, Eckhart was introduced to Klara Schwartz, and they married.  They had five children: four girls and one boy, Joseph.   Two of the girls died in childhood, and the other two died of cancer in their fifties.

As a young boy, Joseph nearly died as well.  Apparently when he was seven or eight, he had a problem with his kidneys.  The doctors advised him to refrain from eating meat for one year, though they didn’t really expected him to live that long.  Somehow, Joseph was cured of whatever ailed him, however, and grew up strong and healthy.  He attempted to attend school over the years, but was always being pulled out to work on the farm.

He was raised Lutheran, and it seemed that Eckhart and Klara were part of a very strict evangelical synod.  They were very old-fashioned and did not approve of dancing, drinking or card-playing—beliefs that Joseph has likewise adhered to all his life, though he has fallen away from the church and now scorns any formal religion.

As much as Eckhart tried to be a farmer like his father, with whom he had purchased and started the farm, it is not a life he was suited to, nor did he enjoy.  Joseph, however, like his grandfather, relished it, and when he was twelve years old, he got a chance to prove it.  At that time, Eckhart fell very ill for an extended period of time, so Joseph ran the vast farm himself.  He took on the responsibility of paying the bills, getting the milk to town, driving trucks and scheduling the many farm hands to do all of the chores and duties around the farm.  He was very successful in his endeavor.  Eventually, however, Eckhart got well enough to take back the reins.  He became an alcoholic, though, and began to make many bad investments.  Thus, when Joseph was seventeen, his father lost everything because of his irresponsibility.  All their money and vast property seemed to evaporate in an instant.

Joseph was forced then to work as a hired hand on other farms.  When the war broke out, he worked in factories and then got a job lifting mail bags on and off railroad cars.  It was at about this time that he was introduced through a friend to Mildred Uthe, the youngest of thirteen children.  The two fell in love and married and moved to a farm in Northbrook, where they lived with the couple who had introduced them and where Joseph could work on the side as a hired hand.  Their first child, Irene, was born a year later, in 1944, and they then moved to Pensacola Avenue in Chicago, where Joseph has lived ever since.

Joseph worked for the railroad for over 30 years and was apparently a workaholic.  The family never took a vacation because Joseph never wanted to be away from work for long.  Sometimes they got free railroad tickets, so they would go on little weekend trips, but nothing more.  If he did have free time, Joseph liked to garden and to read.  He had an amazing memory and could recall anything, no matter how detailed.

Mildred, meanwhile, cared for Irene and then Alice when she came along in 1949.  Alice was born with club feet and had to wear casts on her legs for a year.  Then, when she was five and started school, it became apparent that she was “mildly retarded.”  This crushed Joseph.  He could not accept that his child was “abnormal,” and rejected her from that point on.  Mildred and Irene had to completely care for her.  It was because of Alice that Joseph then refused to have any social interactions, so ashamed was he of his daughter.  He did not want anyone to see her, so he forbade Mildred from ever having friends or family over.

As previously stated, Joseph had fallen away from the Lutheran church and was highly skeptical of any organized religion.  Mildred was Catholic, and she raised Irene and Alice as such, but Joseph refused to let them be part of any formal Catholic instruction.  As adults, however, Irene took matters into her own hands and began the process of joining the Church for herself and Alice.  After that, Joseph apparently relented a bit and agreed to have his marriage to Mildred blessed.

Joseph continued working until he was forced to retire from the railroad when he was 68 in 1981.  He couldn’t handle all of the idle time, however, and slipped into a deep depression.  He was hospitalized for two weeks, during which time he was given electric shock treatments.  When he was released to come home, he had forgotten everything and Mildred and the girls had to teach him how to do everything all over again.  He remained in a “zombie-like” state for over a year before he began to come out of it.

In 1983, however, Mildred was diagnosed with leukemia, and again, Joseph couldn’t handle it.  He refused to believe that she was ill and never once went to the hospital to see her.  On May 10, 1985, Mildred died at home with Irene tending her.  Joseph refused to believe that she was dead for about six months, constantly asking for her.  This was particularly painful for Irene, who then had to relive her mother’s death all over again each time she had to explain it to Joseph.

Joseph, Irene and Alice continued living in the same house on Pensacola until the mid-1990’s when Joseph’s health began to decline severely.  He became too weak to walk or to even get out of bed.  Also, his mood swings and outbursts were increasing, so Irene finally took him to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and dementia.  From there, Irene arranged for him to go to a nursing home, though it was with much guilt and a heavy heart.

Irene visits him as often as she can, which is difficult considering the fact that she still has Alice at home to care for.  The sight of Alice seems to rile Joseph, so Irene tries to leave her at home in the care of a neighbor when she visits.  Joseph remains very confused and disoriented.  He has not made any relationships with the other residents and seems to get the most enjoyment from reading the paper or watching baseball on TV.  Only once in a while does he still ask for Mildred.

Originally written: September 1994

The post He Ran the Farm When He Was Only 12! appeared first on Michelle Cox.

They Met in October and Married in February!

Emilia Mundt was born on October 26, 1913 in Chicago to Jan Jelen and Zofia Nedved, both of whom were immigrants from Slovakia.  Jan came to America with a relative when he was nineteen, and Zofia came with her father when she was fifteen.  Somehow Jan and Zofia met and married when Zofia was just sixteen.  They had two children very close in age: Bartholomew and Emilia, and twelve years later, they had another girl, Denisa.  Zofia stayed home and cared for them in their apartment at Diversey and Ashland, and Jan worked as a maintenance man.

Emilia attended school until eighth grade, at which point Jan said “that’s enough.”  Emilia lied about her age, then, and got a job doing factory work at Stewart-Warner, a company that manufactured speedometers and other auto parts.  She stayed there for two years before leaving to work at a toy factory, but eventually returned to Stewart-Warner.

In 1941, when Jan was 53 years old, the family decided to take a trip to Michigan to visit Jan’s brother, Imrich, and his family.  Imrich was eager to show Jan his new car and took him out for a ride on some country roads.  Tragically, Imrich apparently lost control of the car on a curve and collided with an oncoming milk truck, causing the car to roll several times.  Jan broke his back in three places and ruptured his spleen and died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.  Imrich walked away without a scratch.  From that point on, the two families never spoke again, and Imrich did not even attend the funeral.  Zofia eventually remarried, but only Denisa was still living at home at the time.

When Emilia was twenty-nine, she attended a cousin’s wedding and was introduced to the brides’ brother, Woodrow Mundt.  Woodrow was a third generation German and worked as a bank clerk.  A few days after the wedding, Woodrow asked her out on a date, and they went out for the first time on October 3, 1942. On December 18 of that year, Woodrow proposed and on February 27, 1943, they were married.  “You would never know it,” Emilia says, “but Woodrow was quite a romantic.”  Though she had been on other dates before, no one ever stood out as that special until she met Woodrow.  He thoroughly charmed her, and she fell in love with him right away.

He did not tell her, however, until they had been on several dates together that he had been married before and had an eight-year-old son, Theodore.  Emilia says she was surprised, but in the end, she decided she didn’t mind.  She was head-over-heels for him.  When they married, Emilia quit her job at Stewart-Warner to stay home and take care of Theodore.  She and Theodore bonded right away, and the two she became very close.  Three years later, she and Woodrow had another baby, Virginia.

Emilia and Woodrow apparently had a very happy marriage.  Woodrow was eventually promoted and became a supervisor, working at the same bank for over 40 years.  They moved a few times over the years, eventually buying a house at Foster and Nagle, where they lived for 33 years.  Woodrow and Emilia had very similar tastes.  They enjoyed going to the opera and the theater and often had friends over for cards, though they weren’t a “drinking, dancing sort of group,” says Emilia.

Once Virginia was in school, Emilia went back to work part-time at an insurance company.  She loved reading and crosswords, and was a very active member of St. Cornelius parish.  She raised Virginia Catholic, though Woodrow and Theodore were Lutheran.  Eventually, however, Theodore converted to Catholicism to marry his wife, Janice.  Virginia also eventually married and moved to Phoenix, Arizona, though she and her husband have no children.

In 1973, Woodrow had a mild heart attack and took early retirement at age 63.  He was physically weakened, however, and needed a lot of help.  As the years went on, Emilia was less and less able to assist him as her own health began to decline.  Eventually, they hired a nurse to come in for four hours a day, five days a week.  Theodore and Janice would then fill in the gaps on the weekends to make sure they were okay.

In May of 1994, however, Woodrow developed double pneumonia and passed away on Memorial Day.  Since that time, it has become apparent that Emilia is not able to live alone, so Theodore and Virginia decided to put her house on the market, thinking it would take a long time to sell, during which time they could make a plan about what to do with their mother.  The market surprised them, however, and the house sold in a week.  On top of that, right at about that time, Theodore’s wife, Janice, passed away very suddenly, throwing him into a debilitative grief.

Meanwhile, Virginia has also been tied up with personal things in Phoenix and has not yet been able to make it up to Chicago to find some sort of placement for Emilia.  Desperate, Virginia called Emilia’s brother, Bart, and his wife, Dorothy, who still reside in the Chicagoland area, for help.  Thus, Bart and Dorothy, themselves elderly, along with their son, Steve, agreed to pick up Aunt Emilia and temporarily admit her to a nursing home until Virginia is able to come up and assess a more permanent solution for her.

Emilia agreed to accompany her brother and sister-in-law, but insists she doesn’t belong here and is consequently not adjusting well.  As she believes her time at the home to be temporary, she does not want to make any relationships or join in any activities.  She appears on edge and pessimistic much of the time and has a very dry sense of humor, which is usually lost on the other residents, though the staff find her funny.  She is alert, but she still seems to be grieving for Woodrow, whom, she says was truly her best friend.  “People thought we married too quick,” Emilia says, “but we proved them wrong.  We were always meant to be together.”

Originally written: October 1994

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A Man Filled With Passion and a Love of Life

Anton Lungu was born near Brasov, Romania on July 22, 1936 to Ciprian and Ileana Lungu.  Ciprian was a soldier, and Ileana cared for their four children.  Anton only went to the equivalent of seventh grade before he quit to work at a construction job.  He stayed in construction his whole life, except for the time he spent in the Romanian army.  He served for two years and, in that time, became an officer after attending a special training school.  Once released, he returned to construction.

As a young man, Anton was apparently very handsome and popular.  He had a motorcycle, a leather jacket and lots of girlfriends.  He did not really fall in love, however, until he was 28 years old when he happened to meet the daughter of his boss.  Her name was Bianca Ardelean, and at the time that they met, she was only 17 years old.  From that moment on, supposedly, Anton spent every day trying to persuade Bianca to go for a ride with him on his motorcycle.  Each time she would refuse, however, until one day she finally said yes.  Delighted, Anton devoted the whole day to her, spoiling her and giving her gifts and then, according to family legend, refused to bring her back home.  At the end of the day, he proposed to her, and she said yes, so they drove off to elope.

Unfortunately, however, their plan was foiled.  Since Bianca was still a minor, she was required to have her parents’ permission to marry, so they were turned away from the registrar’s office.  In their own eyes, however, they were “married” and found a place in town to stay for the night.  They then found an apartment, where they proceeded to live as man and wife.  When Bianca’s father finally discovered his daughter’s whereabouts, he was furious, but Bianca refused to leave, saying that she was Aton’s “wife.”  Anton continued to work construction, and Bianca cared for their two children: Bogdan and Crina.  It was not until Crina was seven that Anton and Bianca finally legalized their marriage.

Crina reports that her father idolized her mother.  He spoiled her constantly and often claimed that Bianca was “the greatest woman in the world,” that no one else even came close.  Crina says that her parents were completely devoted to each other and that they had a very happy marriage.

In the early days of their “marriage,” Anton would work very hard, save money and then quit whatever job he was working at so that he and Bianca could spend extended time together, going to the movies, going on picnics and taking long walks.  When their first child, Bogdan, was born, however, Anton became more responsible and stopped quitting jobs.  He began working fourteen hours a day, rarely taking a vacation, and doing everything for Bianca and his two children.  Crina says that her father was a very hard-working, passionate man who was full of energy and life.  He loved gardening and painting, and his ritual was to clean the house on Sundays.  Though he was passionate, Crina say, he was never angry.  He never raised his voice to them, never screamed, yelled, swore or spanked.  His philosophy was that a person could be talked to rationally and be won over through kindness.

In 1984, when Anton was 48 years old, he decided that the family should leave Romania and move to the United States.  Bianca had a sister, Anca, who had been living in America for twenty years and would periodically come back to Romania to visit family and friends.  The family loved hearing Aunt Anca’s stories about her life in America, and they would sit enraptured, listening to her tales.  After one particularly nice visit from Anca, Anton decided that they, too, should move to America, that it would be good for the children to live there.  Crina says that her father was always up for an adventure and that this seemed like “a wonderful one” to undertake.

Thus, the Lungu family moved from Bucharest to Chicago, where Anca lived.  They all bought a house together, and Anton found work in construction, just as he had in Romania.  For the most part, the family enjoyed their new country and remained very, very close.

About five years ago, however, Anton began experiencing severely debilitating headaches.  He finally went to the doctor, who diagnosed him as having an aneurism.  They did surgery right away, but it is thought that he may have suffered a stroke immediately following it.  Anton was then in a coma for eight months, during which time Bianca rarely left his side.  When he finally began coming out of the coma, he could not speak at all.  Then, suddenly, he began speaking in perfect English, with no accent at all, and with perfect grammar and diction.  It was extraordinary, and no one could explain it, even the doctors.  This lasted only a brief time, however, before he lost it and went back to speaking Romanian again with no knowledge of his ability to speak perfect English.

Anton was eventually allowed to go back home, where the family has been caring for him round the clock ever since.  Eventually, however, the situation has gotten out of hand, as Bianca received news that her father was dying back in Romania and had asked for her to come.  Given the sometimes rocky relationship she had had with him over her marriage to Anton, Bianca was very torn as to what to do.  Bogdan and Crina insisted that she go and promised to care for Anton in her absence.  Anton, who has episodes of confusion and one-track thoughts, immediately went down-hill once Bianca was gone.  He began shouting and screaming, which was completely out of character for him, and refused to let anyone help him.  In vain, Bogdan and Crina tried to help, but could only see him deteriorating further.  In desperation, they called his doctor, who then arranged for Anton to be temporarily placed in a nursing home until Bianca comes back.

Meanwhile, Crina has told him that he is in a hospital and that Bianca is in a different one.  They do not dare tell him that Bianca is in Romania, as they feel that would push him over the edge, as he constantly begs to be taken back there himself.  Bogdan and Crina visit daily, counting down the days until their mother returns and they can take Anton back home, where, they say, his dog, Charlie, is pining away for him.  The staff is doubtful about the family’s ability to care for him at home, but, Crina says, “They don’t know how much we love each other.”

Originally written October 1995

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She Lived For Dancing and Worked at the Same Place For 64 Years!

Wilma McDonald was born on April 10, 1910 in Chicago to Lech Kaszubski and Berta Kaluza.  Not much is known about the origins of Lech and Berta.  It is believed that they were both born in Chicago, but that they called themselves Kashubs, which is apparently an ethnic Slavic group within Poland near the Balic Sea.  Kashubs are supposed to be descendents of the medieval Pomeranians.  Whatever their history was, Berta was a housewife and cared for their three children: Wilma, Cecelia, and Albert, and Lech began his working life building truck bodies when they were still yet made of wood.  Later, he decided to open a restaurant near Milwaukee and Devon, which sat between two cemeteries.  Given the location, their biggest source of business was naturally funeral dinners.

Wilma went to school until 8th grade and worked at the family restaurant until she was sixteen.  She then asked her parents if she could quit and instead got a job at M. Snower as a seamstress doing what was called “piece work.”  Each girl had a minimum number of garments that they needed to produce in order to receive their base pay.  Anything they produced beyond the minimum got them a bonus.  Wilma worked at this job for 64 years, retiring when she was 70!  Every day of her work week, she took two buses and the el to get there.

As a young woman, Wilma lived for dancing.  She loved to hear the big bands at the Aragon, Trianon and the Rainbow.  It was at one of these dance halls that she met Martin McDonald, whom she eventually married.  Marty had a job unloading mail off of boxcars, and the couple lived on McLean Avenue.  They had one child, Russell.  When the war broke out, Marty joined the army and managed to make it back safe, only minimally wounded, after two years of active duty.  He got his job back unloading the mail, but he and Wilma were not the same.  They began fighting a lot and could no longer see eye-to-eye on anything.  Finally, when Russell was eight, the couple divorced.  Wilma lost contact with Marty and supported Russell alone on her wages as a seamstress.

Russell reports that his mother was always on the go.  She had “tons of hobbies” and was always full of life.  Besides music—big band in particular—Wilma also loved the movies and went religiously, every Sunday, to the cinema.  She was also obsessed with crocheting afghans and knitting doilies and was constantly doing this in her spare time, even to age 82.  She was an avid reader, her favorite genres being mystery and romance (!), and she would check out at least six books at a time and return all of them, finished, after two weeks.

Perhaps the biggest love of her life, though, was her grandson, Joseph.  In 1972, when Joseph was born, Wilma moved in with Russell and his wife, Eva, and helped to take care of Joey, even though she was still working herself.  She was a huge part of Joey’s life and was always interested in what he and his friends were up to.  Even as teenagers, if Joey had friends over for a BBQ, Wilma could always be found in the midst of them, having fun and joking with them.  She genuinely loved all young people in general, and enjoyed spending time in their company.

Up until the age of 65, Wilma had never traveled beyond the Chicago city limits.  But upon her 65th birthday, she decided to take up traveling and went on bus trips all over the United States and even made it to Hawaii.  Over the years, she has belonged to several parishes: St. Stanislaw, St. Sylvester, and St. Cornelius, but never joined any groups or ministries in any of them, even in recent years, because, she claimed, “all of them are old!”

Wilma continued working until she was 70, but kept up her very active lifestyle, which included smoking and drinking, until she was around 77 when she experienced the first of her “spells.”  She was at the library when it first happened.  Russell came and got her and took her to the emergency room, where she had “every test known to man.”  Nothing significant was found, but she continued to have several of these “spells” over the next six or seven years, each time experiencing a small loss in cognition as a result.

Recently, one of these spells caused her to fall, and she broke a hip.  While in the hospital recovering, she fell and broke the other hip.  Much to their great sorrow, Russell and Eva, who is experiencing her own serious health issues, felt they could not care for Wilma any more at home, especially considering her two broken hips.

Russell, who is not able to visit often because most of his time is taken up caring for Eva, describes Wilma as a very strong woman who never let things bother her.  He thinks that one of the reasons she liked to keep so busy was so that she wouldn’t have to dwell on the past or current worries.  She prayed novenas often and surrounded herself with a lot of friends as a way of coping, he feels.  Her grandson, Joe, who was such a big part of her life, lives in Montana now and has not yet been to see her since her admission.

Overall, Wilma is a very alert, pleasant woman who enjoys all aspects of the nursing home.  Only occasionally is she disoriented and confused, during which times, she pitifully asks the staff to call Russell or Joey to come and get her.

Originally written November 1995

The post She Lived For Dancing and Worked at the Same Place For 64 Years! appeared first on Michelle Cox.

She Was Born and Lived in the Same Apartment for Over 80 years!

Edith Wojewodika was born on February 7, 1915 in Chicago.  Her parents were Eluf Akselsem and Britta Dam, both immigrants from Denmark who met in New York shortly after arriving in America.  They married three weeks later, much to the surprise of those who knew them.  Everyone said they were crazy and that it wouldn’t last.  Eluf and Britta were happy, though, and decided to move to Chicago, where they both found jobs cleaning offices for the telephone company.  They found an upstairs apartment in a two-story bungalow on Ohio Street, which they rented for many years until they could afford to buy the building itself from the money they managed to save.

It is said that Britta had nine miscarriages before she was able to give birth to five children: Anna, Otto, Ruben, Viggo and Edith.  Britta continued working as a cleaner on the night shift even after all the children were born, while Eluf worked the day shift so that someone was always at home with the children.  This arrangement worked until Eluf suddenly died of a heart attack at age 48.

Though Edith was only in seventh grade at the time, she quit school to get a job to help bring in money for her mother.  She lied about her age and used her sister’s name to get a job at a factory making bobby pins.  She worked there for several years until she quit to work in other factories.

In 1936, when she was 21, Edith married the boy next door, Paul Wojewodika, whom she had known all her life.  Though he was four years her senior, they had always been friends.  Edith says, “I never thought of him that way,” and she was therefore surprised when one day he asked her on a date.  She didn’t know what to say, so she said yes, not knowing what to expect.  Paul told her that he had been in love with her “forever” and wanted to marry her.  Edith wasn’t sure how she felt at first, but agreed to go on more dates with him.  Eventually she fell in love with him, too, and they were married.

The young couple moved into the upstairs apartment, as Britta wanted the downstairs apartment now so that she would no longer have to climb stairs.  At the time, only Viggo was still living at home with her.  Paul worked for Western Electric until it closed down, at which point he got a job at a plating company.  Paul and Edith lived in the same apartment their whole married life and made many changes to the structure over the years, including installing a water heater and bath tubs.

Upon getting married, Edith did not go out to work.  She miscarried several times and then began having “complications.”  Finally the doctors advised a hysterectomy, which was very hard for Edith to accept.  She really wanted children, but it seemed it was not to be.  Eventually she grew bored of staying home alone and got a job, then, at American Color Type making Christmas cards.

She was very active in her parish of Holy Innocents, though she was also involved at the nearby St. John Cantius, as well.  She was likewise the member of the Welfare Club, which helped orphans needing clothes for their First Communion or other holiday occasions.  She loved to bake and was actually quite famous in the area for her carrot cake.  She loved to go dancing, though Paul was not too keen.  Often he would take her to a dance hall, where she would dance with other people.  Apparently Paul did not seem to mind this, frequently telling her, “I don’t mind who you dance with, just as long as you remember who you came with!”

When Edith’s mother, Britta, passed away, Edith’s sister, Anna, and her husband, Oscar, moved into the downstairs apartment.  Not long after, Anna died as well, so Dorothy, Anna and Oscar’s daughter, moved in to help care for Oscar, who needed a lot of help and could not be on his own.  Edith says it was a blessing because the very next year, Paul died, too, and it was a very great comfort to have Dorothy living just below.  Even so, Edith took Paul’s death very hard, as they were terrifically close.  They had known each other almost all their lives and had done everything together.  Edith describes Paul as being a very sweet, gentle, loving man.

After his death, Edith continued on her own, going to her various groups at Holy Innocents until she herself fell several times in one year.  Dorothy tried to get her to move in with her, but Edith refused, not wanting to burden her niece.  It was at her own insistence, then, that she be admitted to a nursing home, and if she is sad because of it, she does not let on.  In September of 1995, she left the apartment on Ohio Street, the place where she had been born and where she had lived for over eighty years.

With incredible positivity and hopefulness, she is trying her best to adjust to her new home.  She says she has always “taken things in stride” and gets a lot of comfort from prayer.  Being in a nursing home is “not so bad” she says.  “I already have a lot of friends.”

(Originally written: September 1995)

The post She Was Born and Lived in the Same Apartment for Over 80 years! appeared first on Michelle Cox.

A Father to His Brothers

Leonard “Leo” Frazier was born on October 7, 1906 on a farm in Minnesota to Lewis and Marion Frazier.  Lewis was born in Minnesota, and Marion was a German immigrant.  Together they had eight children, of whom Leonard was the youngest.

When Leo was only three years old, his father died.  His mother eventually remarried and had two more children.  Leo’s stepfather was apparently very abusive to him and to his mother, and Leo only went to school until roughly the 3rd grade before he was made to work on the farm.  As he grew older, he also worked as a hired hand on surrounding farms and even worked, as a young teen, on a ranch in Montana for a while with his brother, Arthur, who had found work as a blacksmith.

When he was about seventeen or eighteen, Leo decided to make his way back home from Montana, but found work along the way in Chicago, working construction.  He decided to stay and worked to get himself established before finally completing the trip back to Minnesota, determined to rescue his mother from his abusive stepfather.  Marion apparently did not need much convincing, and together she and Leo bought a small house in Oak Park, though it was a struggle to keep it, especially once the Great Depression hit.  Eventually, almost all of Leo’s brothers migrated down to find work and lived in the house as well.

In the 1930’s, Leo and his brothers formed the Frazier Brothers Construction Company.  Leo worked very hard, mostly doing remodeling work, and employed a man, Fred Schneider, to build cabinets in the garage behind their house in Oak Park, which Leo would then install in various homes.  Eventually, Leo formed a separate company called Frazier Home Utilities Company, which basically consisted of his arrangement with Fred to build cabinets as well as a lumber supply company of sorts.

When the war broke out, however, Leo found himself too busy to install the cabinets Fred was building.  Instead of remodeling and home construction, Leo and his brothers found themselves building barracks at Fort Knox and also did work for Chrysler at Great Lakes, which was producing products for the war effort.

After the war was over, business boomed for the Frazier Brothers Construction Company.  Leo also started up the remodeling business again, though he also built a handful of homes himself,  from the ground up, many of which can still be seen today in Villa Park.

When Leo was twenty-four, he was set up on a blind date with a young woman, Lucille Cotter, who was four years his junior.  The two of them hit it off right away and got married in 1930.  They had two children: Sidney and Sissie, and Lucille acted as the bookkeeper for both of Leo’s companies.  After the Depression, Leo’s brothers eventually married as well, and one by one, left the house until only his mother, Marion remained.  She lived with Leo and Lucille until 1950, when she fell and broke her hip.  Not knowing what else to do, Leo put her in a nursing home, then, but she died soon after at age eighty-three.

Leo and Lucille apparently had a very happy marriage, one of their favorite hobbies being square dancing.  They became friends with a couple who were regionally “famous” callers, Lulubell and Scottie.  The four of them remained friends for many years, and Leo even did work on their house in Oak Park for them.

Besides square dancing, Leo’s other passion in life was horseshoes.  Apparently, Leo traveled all over the country and the world competing in competitions and has over 100 trophies.  Leo’s son, Sid, says that he rarely saw his father when he was growing up, as he was always working or away at a horseshoe competition.  Leo was also an active member of the “Freedom Through Truth Foundation,” which was a group whose focus was to educate people about how money is created, circulated and used by the government or big businesses to keep people in debt.

In 1984, Leo felt it was time to retire and accordingly dissolved Frazier Home Utilities Company.  He also allowed his nephews to take over the Frazier Brothers Construction Company.  About four or five years later, however, it closed, too.

In 1993, Lucille passed away, which is when all of Leo’s troubles began, says Sid.  Lucille’s death was terribly hard on Leo, as they had been married 63 years.  He became depressed and angry and then began to slip mentally.  Finally, it was decided that Sid would move in with his father for a time, hoping that if he could provide balanced meals for him, his confusion might get better.  Even under Sid’s supervision, however, Leo got progressively worse, so Sid and his wife, Jean, arranged for Leo to be admitted to a nursing home.  Leo’s daughter, Sissie, lives in Vermont and is not a part of his care, though she has called several times to talk to him.

Leo is able to communicate at times, but he remains very confused.  He spends most of his time wandering the halls and periodically attempts to leave the facility.  He is easily redirected, however, and does not become agitated.  Frequently he asks for Lucille or Sid.  Sid visits as often as he can and attempts to play checkers or chess with his father, which Leo used to love and which was one of the few things that he and Sid shared as Sid was growing up.  Leo seems enthused at first to play but quickly becomes distracted.

Sid ruefully reflects that despite the fact that Leo wasn’t the most active, present father, he was like a father to all of his brothers, though he was the youngest and only had a third grade education.  He provided them with a home and work and helped each of them become successful in their own way.  He was a true pillar of his community, Sid says.  “Everyone respected him.”

(Originally written: February 1995)

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She Was Jane Russell’s Manicurist

Hazel Reuter was born on May 17, 1920 in Chicago to Douglas Wilson and Eileen Brady, who were of Scottish and Irish descent, respectively.  Douglas worked in the produce business and adored Eileen, says Hazel, who was very beautiful.  Douglas and Eileen had a total of five children: Vernon, Victor, Hazel, Gerald and Jane, but two of them, Vernon and Victor, died as toddlers in the flu epidemic.  Then, when Hazel was just ten years old, Eileen died at age 36 of stomach cancer.

Upon his wife’s death, Douglas apparently fell apart and could not take care of the three children that remained, so he arranged for relatives to take them in.  Hazel went to Eileen’s sister and Gerald and Jane went to her mother’s.  Tragically, Gerald died just three years later, in 1933, of a brain tumor, and plunged the family into grief again.

Finally, at some point, Douglas pulled himself together enough to get a little apartment on Hudson Avenue in Lincoln Park in an attempt to make a home for Hazel and Jane, his only surviving children.  Hazel says it was very nice for a time until Douglas remarried, after which the atmosphere in the home became tense and abusive.  The situation with her new stepmother grew so bad that one night, in desperation, Hazel, aged 17, packed a grocery bag full of clothes and left the house.  She went to her grandmother’s at Ravenswood and Irving Park Road, where there were many factories, and asked if she could stay with her.  Her grandmother of course took her in, and Hazel quickly got a job at a toy factory.

Jane soon followed Hazel to their grandmother’s and got a job as a housemaid for a wealthy family living on Lake Shore Drive.  Jane married young, at 19, and over the years, she and Hazel have lost contact, though Hazel does not say why.

In 1945, when Hazel was 25, she met a young soldier, Benjamin Reuter, who was on leave.  They met at the Aragon Ballroom, and Hazel agreed to write to him while he was away.  As soon as Benjamin was discharged from the army, the two were married.

It was a difficult marriage, however, in that Benjamin was of Russian Jewish descent, and his family ostracized them because Hazel was Christian.  Only Benjamin’s mother would occasionally speak to Hazel.  Benjamin found work as a cab driver, and Hazel cared for their baby, Marian, in the tiny, one-room apartment where they lived.  As their financial situation improved, they moved to a bigger apartment, with Hazel working part-time in various factories.

When Marian was nine, Hazel and Benjamin had another baby, Charlie, followed quickly by Pearl.  At this point, the marriage seemed to break down, and the two separated.  Both Charlie and Pearl, Hazel says, have few memories of their father.  Hazel began then to work as a manicurist and eventually found a job at an exclusive salon that catered to the “rich and famous.”  Hazel is very proud of the fact that she gave Jane Russell her manicures on a regular basis.  After many years of this, however, the stress apparently got to her and she quit.

It was at this time that Benjamin, estranged from them all these years, was diagnosed with leukemia.  In April of 1970, he came back home to Hazel to die.  Hazel indeed nursed him for two months until he passed away in June of that same year.  Marian had already moved out and was married “to an Arab who controls her,” is how Hazel describes her daughter’s marriage, even now.  Charlie and Pearl were teenagers at the time of their father’s death.  Eventually, Pearl married, too, and moved to Missouri.  Only Charlie remained with his mother and appears to be somewhat unstable, mentally and emotionally.

In 1974, Hazel had two heart attacks and spent thirty days in the hospital.  She eventually went back home and recovered and spent much of her time trying to help Charlie with his many issues.  Her favorite pastimes were cooking and walking to thrift stores.

Around 1985, Hazel happened to hear about and attended a prayer meeting led by an “evangelical preacher” who went only by the name of “Farlo.”  Hazel became enraptured with Farlo’s preaching and completely immersed herself in his particular brand of religion, which she refers to as “The Message.”  Hazel now believes that God talks to her and has given her the gifts of speaking in tongues, having full knowledge of the bible, prophesy, reading minds and the power to heal others by praying over them or touching them.

Recently, Hazel has been experiencing blood-pressure problems and was hospitalized for five days.  Her doctors were not convinced of her ability to go home, even with, or perhaps because of, Charlie being there, so she agreed to go to a nursing home.  Hazel believes, however, that she will heal herself in exactly one month’s time and then be released.  Charlie seems overwhelmed by his mother’s placement here.  He visits frequently, but rather than offer her encouragement and support, it seems to be the other way around.  Charlie seems very emotionally dependent on Hazel and sits with her for hours, during which time she tries her best to comfort him.

Hazel is not acclimating well to the home, as she views her stay here as temporary.  At times she is very accepting and pleasant with the staff, and at other times she can be verbally abusive.  She seems content to read her bible and pray and to sit quietly with Charlie watching TV.  Though very alert and able to communicate, she does not seem concerned with her medical prognosis nor her plan of care.

(originally written November 1995)

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She Made Her Way to America Alone, Age 14

Mirna Claesson was born on November 29, 1900 in Velika Gorica, Croatia, near Zagreb.  Her parents were Dejan and Nada Juric.  Mirna was the oldest of three children and went to school as far as the sixth grade.  At that time, when she was about eleven, her mother died.  Following her death, her father, Dejan, decided that he would try to start over in America.  He left his two youngest children, Emil and Blazenka, in the care of a relative, and took Mirna, age 12 at this point, with him on the long journey.  His plan was to send for the younger two once he was established in his new country.

Unfortunately, however, he and Mirna only got as far as the Hungarian border.  The officials there would not let Mirna cross as she had no paperwork, and Dejan could not prove that she was really his child.  Desperate, the two agreed that Dejan would cross the border and continue on to America and that Mirna would make the return journey back to Croatia on her own.

Once back at home, she began the long process of trying to get her papers in order, though it took a couple of years to achieve this as well as to save enough money to start the journey all over.  When she was fourteen, she was finally able to set off again, this time hoping that everything was in order.  She again left her brother and sister behind and managed to travel cross-country, alone, and eventually boarded a ship for America.

On the sea voyage, Mirna became desperately ill.  When she finally arrived at Ellis Island, she was nearly sent back because of a terrible eye infection she was suffering from.  By some chance, she was instead quarantined.  Eventually, her condition did improve and she was sent on her way.  She traveled by train to Chicago where she was finally reunited with her father.

Dejan had since remarried and worked in various factories around the city.  Mirna quickly found work as a seamstress, and she and her father and his new wife were able to send for Emil and Blazenka after about a year.  The family was not reunited for long, however, before Dejan died in 1918 of the flu epidemic.

That same year, Mirna met a man by the name of Paul Jagoda at a birthday party of a mutal friend.  They began dating and, after a very short courtship, were married.  Mirna was 19 and Paul was 30.  By 1920, Mirna gave birth to their first child, Paskal.

In 1924, the young couple decided to move to Medon, Ohio, where they rented a farm.  It was there that they met their life-long friends, Anna and Anders Claesson, who lived on the neighboring farm.  When Mirna gave birth to her second child, Wilma, it was Anna Claesson who acted as midwife/nurse for the rural doctor when no one else could be found, even though she herself had no children.

After Wilma’s birth, Mirna’s health declined and she began to have problems with her kidneys.  Much as they hated to leave their farm and their good friends, Paul and Mirna decided to return to Chicago to get Mirna better medical care.  They found an apartment in Rogers Park, and Paul got a job as a janitor for a large apartment complex.

Eventually, Mirna’s health improved, so in 1933, they decided to go back to Medon, this time with enough money saved to put a down payment on a farm of their own.  They worked the farm for thirteen years until Paul died very suddenly one day of a heart attack at age 56.  Mirna stayed on at the farm with the help of the Claessons, still their very good friends.

Two years after Paul’s death, however, Anna Claesson died of cancer.  Now it was Mirna’s turn to comfort Anders, and as time went on, the two old friends fell in love.  It was a very smooth transition for Paskal and Wilma to accept their new step-father, as Anna and Anders had known them all their lives and had tended to spoil them, whenever they got the chance, never having had any children of their own.

This was 1946, and after they were married, Mirna and Anders decided to leave all of their memories behind in Medon and went to Chicago where they bought a house in Berwyn.  Anders found a job as a foreman and was later the co-owner of Ettinger Manufacturing Company.  He and Mirna had many happy years together until he, too, died of a heart attack at age 84.

Mirna lived alone after that and continued to bake and to garden, which had always been her biggest hobby.  In fact, back in Medon, she had had a reputation in the area for having the most beautiful vegetable and flower gardens.  So visually stunning were they that often people traveling through town would stop and photograph them.

On Mirna’s 85th birthday, Paskal and Wilma gave her a big birthday party and invited lots of friends and family.  Mirna enjoyed every minute of it and was, up to that point, perfectly alert and independent.  Soon after the party, however, Wilma began to notice that her mother seemed to be “slipping” mentally and was becoming more and more agitated.

Things seemed to worsen quickly, and Paskal and Wilma consulted about how to handle the situation.  They finally decided to hire a private nurse/housekeeper to live with Mirna, but it was not a successful arrangement.  The two personalities clashed, and Mirna’s appetite declined severely.  Twice she managed to elude the housekeeper and was found wandering in the neighborhood, lost and disoriented.  Wilma and Paskal, both retired themselves, knew something else had to be done, but neither could handle bringing Mirna to live with them.  Instead, they reluctantly decided to admit her to a nursing home.

Between them they decided not to tell Mirna the whole truth behind the plan, as Mirna had sworn all her life that she would rather die than go into a home.  Needless to say, Mirna was very angry and agitated, as well as confused, upon her admission.  She has since calmed down a bit, however, now that she has met some of the other eastern European residents with whom she can speak.  Likewise, the activities department has recruited her help in the garden, and she seems to enjoy all of the ethnic food provided by the home, which pleasantly includes a glass of beer or wine with dinner.  Mirna is a very pleasant woman, eager to please, though at times confused.  She seems to believe that her stay here is temporary until Paskal and Wilma “fix up a room” for her in Wilma’s house, hence her distress has lightened considerably and her adjustment is improving.

(originally written December 1993)

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From the Luftwaffe to Chicago Tool and Die

Deiderich Muller was born on July 27, 1921 in Dortmund, Germany to Adolf and Elisabeth Muller. Elisabeth had been married before to a man named Karl Achterberg and had one child with him, Ada, before he was killed in the First World War. Elisabeth was apparently a very strong, dominant woman and married again, this time to Adolf Muller, a factory worker. They also only had one child, Deiderich, but not much is known about his early life except that he received very little schooling. At a very young age, he began working with his father in the factory.

When World War II broke out, however, Deiderich was forced into the German air force and served as a radio dispatcher in the air. It is a part of his life that he has never talked about, even to those closest to him. He was shot down at some point and captured and was taken to a prisoner-of-war camp in Holland. This is all he will say about that time in his life.

When the war was finally over, Deiderich decided to come to the United States to start a new life. He came to live with his aunt and two cousins in Chicago and got a job as a tool and die maker. He was apparently a very hard worker and also very shy. All of the friends he made here were also German, as he could speak to them easily and could avoid having to become fluent in English that way. He joined a German club and spent a lot of his free time playing soccer with his friends.

When he was about thirty years old, however, he began toying with the idea of going back to Germany, but he changed his mind when he met a woman, older than him, by the name of Gertruda Hoffman. Gertruda was a Polish/German mix and could speak German, much to Deiderich’s delight. After they first met, Deiderich discovered that she was already married, but separated from her husband. Deiderich tried to stay away from her, but he was very attracted to her and they began dating anyway.

Eventually, Gertruda divorced her husband and married Deiderich. It was not a happy marriage, however, though it lasted thirty-one years. Gertruda was apparently a very cold, unhappy woman who often made fun of Deiderich’s broken English and forced him to go to night school to try to improve his language skills. Together they had one child, Anna. Gertruda did not want a child at all, but she finally gave in to Deiderich’s pleading for one. After Anna, though, she refused to have another one.

The marriage ended abruptly in 1985, when Deiderich came home from work and found a note from Gertruda saying that she had met someone else and was leaving him. Alone again, Deiderich went back to spending all of his time at his German club and went to many dances, where he met his new wife, Joan Mayer, who was of German and Irish descent. Joan and Deiderich married in 1991 and seemed very well-suited. They enjoyed a lot of the same things, Joan reports, and had common friends and interests, especially dancing.

After only two years together, however, Deiderich had a small stroke, after which Joan noticed that his behavior began to change. The most obvious difference to her was that he began to mismatch his clothes. Previously, Joan says, he had always appeared so dapper—neat and trim and usually dressed in a suit. Unfortunately, despite Joan’s efforts to help him, Deiderich seemed to get worse, and after a string of doctor visits, was eventually diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Against everyone’s advice, Joan sold the house, and they moved into a condo, which further disoriented Deiderich. Desperate to provide for him, Joan hired nurses to help with his care, which seemed to work for a time. Recently, however, he has begun to be combative, not just with the nurses, but with Joan, too, and the decision was reluctantly made for him to go into a nursing home.

At this point, Deiderich’s daughter, Anna, got involved. She has never warmed to Joan, and insisted that her father be placed near her in Addison, Il. This would have seriously prohibited Joan and Deiderich’s first cousin, whom he still maintained a close relationship with over the years, from visiting. The two continued to argue over his care so much so that a state guardian was appointed. After looking over the case, the guardian ruled in favor of placing Deiderich in the city near Joan and his first cousin.

Joan, though very pleased with the decision and with the nursing home in general, is very distressed at Deiderich’s placement. She visits constantly and repeatedly talks about feeling cheated out of the life she and Deiderich had planned and is hoping for a cure so that he can come back home and take up their plans just where they left off. She does not accept that Deiderich’s condition and placement are permanent.

Deiderich, for his part, is relatively calm and non-combative. He does not interact with other residents, nor does he participate in many activities. While he does not seem agitated, he is confused and seems unhappy. When Joan is not visiting, he can be frequently found sitting alone in a chair, often crying. It is difficult for the staff to bring either of them any sort of comfort.

(originally written Oct. 1993)

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