Tribute

All comments are welcome. It's nice to know that people think my blog worthy of reading. But the comment from Donna got me thinking of my long-time neighbors.

I met Donna in September 1968 when her family moved into the house next to mine. Ray and I had been there two years (he died five years later). She and my daughter Carmen were 2 1/2 years old. Her sister Christine was 5, Patty was 8 months (Karen and Billy came later), and my son Dominic was one week. Donna, Carmen and Patty after she grew a bit became constant playmates, friends, and Donna and Patty are godmothers to Carmen's daughters. They were in and out of each others houses all the time.

Their mother Marie was a stay-at-home mom. For years she was also my after-school babysitter, and when the kids were old enough to be on their own after school, she was there in case they needed her. I don't know what I would have done without her! She and I spent many hours talking over the back fence, or sitting on the front steps watching the children play in the evening. Yes, they played in the street - the traditional place to play half-ball. If a car came, they all moved to the side while it passed.

Marie never learned to drive. She grew up in Philadelphia where public transportation was readily available. After they moved to New Jersey, Bill was always willing to drive her where ever she needed to go. If he didn't need to go into a store with her, he sat in the car and read.

I remember talking to Donna once about some of the problems of kids like mine with only one parent or those of divorced parents, and telling her that she and I were among the lucky ones. We grew up in stable, two-parent families. My parents were together almost 57 years. It was not a lovey-dovey, sexy relationship (at least not that one would see from the outside), but they had worked out their relationship, as all couples need to do, and raising the four of us children was probably the most important thing to them. Mother sometimes complained that Daddy wasn't romantic, but then he would surprise her with a hurricane lamp she had admired. Or going back even further, in 1941 he bought a kerosene-motor, wringer washer so she wouldn't have to do my diapers by hand. When the delivery truck brought it Mother said there was some mistake, but they said no, it had been bought and paid for. Mother probably saw no romance in that, but I do.

Anyway, back to the Jordan's. Marie and Bill have now been together 45 or 46 years. I think it's 'Til death do us part' and hope that parting is not for another 15 or 20 years at least.