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How I Met My Husband

I lived with my mother on Pleasant Street after all my sisters were married and had moved out. Next door to us lived a sister Dorothy and her husband with two boys, Bob and Dennis. As the years passed, Dorothy, developed rheumatoid arthritis. Year after year the disease progressed and she finally ended up in a wheel chair. Her husband was the kindest, most patient, hard-working man there ever was, but he really struggled to keep up with his work and to keep his family going. Mother and I helped all we could, and I like to believe that we were a great help to them.

When the boys were little, I bathed them, took care of them, and did many other things that needed to be done. Mother also did all she could to help them. When they were school age, they went to Trinity School where I taught, and were in my class. Later on, when Dennis, who was the youngest, graduated from Valparaiso University, Dorothy got sick on her trip back home. She never recovered, and not much later she died. My mom also died a few years later, at the age of 86.

Now, both Dorothy's husband and I were alone, each living in our separate houses. Having known each other for such a long time, and having so much to do with each other in our lives, it was not a difficult decision to make to get married. So we did, and the boys I had helped became my step-sons and we became a happy family.

Dorothy never saw her grandchildren, of which there were two, but they are real special to me. Christopher is a going to the

UW of Minnesota in Minneapolis. His dad is a Math instructor at the UW in Stout, Menomonie. Scott is a Fourth Grader in a parochial school in Ft. Wayne, where his dad is going to the Seminary to become a pastor, after teaching in inner city parochial schools for 25 years.

These two nephews (who became my step-sons), and their families, together with their dad, have been an important part in my life,

and have made my years with them enjoyable and meaningful.