| Chapter 11: My First Child
It was a hot July day when Susie was born. We were living on Branchport Ave. I had walked downtown to Arnolds deli for a BLT sandwich with Doris Baxter and Gregory (who was 3 months old). I stopped at Ann Robinsons on my way home. She was my mother's best friend and lived on Dudley St. I felt fine. Great as a matter of fact. But I looked like I was 20 months pregnant. I walked on home and cooked supper for Cyril and POP-POP Larry. About 6:20 I felt a slight cramp. They started coming every 20 minutes until 8:30, AND THEN all of a sudden they dropped to five minutes. I called Dr. Demaree and he told me to go to the hospital. I got there about 8:45. It was Monday JULY 12th, and our insurance had just kicked in two days before. When I got to the hospital I was already dilated, so the interns called Demaree again. Aunt Bobby called him. He had stopped off at Falvos to get a soda (Usually the first baby takes awhile coming but Susie wasn't waiting). She told him to get the hell over to the hospital RIGHT AWAWY as they had already shipped me into the delivery room. They didn't have time to give me a spinal (which was the thing that was used the most then), instead they put something over my nose and told me to breath like a puppy. I thought, "Thank God they were giving me something to knock me out, so I was breathing like crazy (only to find out that it was pure oxygen). Dick got there just in time to catch her as she flew out. It was exactly 9:40 pm, the exact time my mother had died the year before (January) and also on a Monday night. She weighed 7 1/2 lbs. and was beautiful! Perfect eyebrows and fingers etc. Just a little blond hair. The second day the nurse brought her in to be nursed, and they brought me the WRONG baby (maybe I should have kept HER). Of course I knew she wasn't mine because she wasn't anywhere near as perfect as Susie was. I stayed in the hospital for five days (they used to keep you there for a week or more), and then Hazel and Cyril came to take us home. Everyday I would put her in the carriage that Pop-pop had bought me and walk over to Broadway to pick up Doris and Greg and we would walk downtown to Arnolds for lunch. In those days you could leave your carriages outside and nobody would bother them. Then we'd walk back and I would stop at my grandmothers for a visit and then home. Life was good, and she was an angel. If you told her not to touch something she wouldn't touch it. Unbelievable. Just once she pulled a plant out of the container and I yelled at her and she never touched it again. She started to walk at 11 months. She also cut her first tooth when she was nursing at THREE months. I can still feel that! That was the day I put her on a bottle (my milk wasn't strong enough for her and I had to nurse her every two hours so I spent all my time feeding her). The bottles fixed that problem. She was an angel UNTIL Sally was born eight years later. She was soooo jealous of her (and never got over it either). When I left Cyril for Bud I got a job as a dental assistant in Asbury Park. I left with the idea that as soon as I could provide a home for them (Linda Too) that I would come back and get the girls. Cyril said that IF I found out that I was making a mistake, he would take me back. I was gone 2 months and was miserable. I missed the kids so much. But that summer Cyril talked me into signing the house over to him so when I decided to move home, he called the Police and had me put out. He went back on his word. After that Susie was always nasty to me (and in a way I couldn't blame her). The following year, two days after our divorce was final, Bud and I were married. Susie broke my heart when she took Audrey to the TRI-HI. Tri had their motherdaughter banquet, and I had been a charter member of the same chapter and had taken my mother to the very FIRST one. I wouldn't have cared if she had taken Aunt Hazel, but it really upset me that she took Audrey, as Cyril and her were not even married then. I never got over that. I remember I cried for two days straight. No matter what I did for her after I left, she never acted like a daughter should. When I found an apartment for myself and the girls she was the one who helped pick it out. I had the girls with me for 6 months, but had to work and didn't have enough money to pay the rent half the time. Cyril gave me $45.00 a week for all three and I was making $375 a week, but it was not enough, so the kids went back to Branchport Ave and I got a room. I finally found a small apartment on Westwood Avenue, then Bud and I got married and moved to Farmingdale. The kids minus Susie came over every Friday for the weekend, and I went down to Long Branch to see them every day. Susie went up to Charlenes while she was in High School. She met the guy and went with him all summer. I went up to see Charlene one weekend and brought him home with me to surprise her, we went over to school and she snubbed him and wouldn't even come over to the car to talk to him. I felt so sorry for him. I had to put him on a bus and send him back to Easton. She was such a bitch. I bought her a beautiful jade ring for Graduation. It had tiny seed pearls all around it and it cost me $297.00. It took me MONTHS to pay for it and I gave it to her for her senior prom. She looked gorgeous. When she lived with me she had her JR High Graduation dance. I bought her a dress and her date stood her up. I was so mad I drove over to Charlies house and wanted to know WHY he didn't come to pick her up. His parents were furious with him and made him take her. I dropped them off and his father brought them home. This was the same guy she went to both huge school Proms with. When Bud bought the house in Pt. Pleasant she would never come down. We got a boat thinking that would be nice for her, but she still never came. I think she was there once or twice, and when Chris was born she was REALLY jealous of him. She said he was spoiled. NEVER! I bought her wedding gown. She picked it out in Mustillos in Red Bank. It was $60.00, which was cheap then. I like one that we saw in Belmar Fashion (that was $297.00), but because I liked it, she didnt. She was married to Ski in Aunt Hazels back yard and it was a very nice wedding. Her reception was at the Squire's Pub where she was working at that time. Just finger foods and a band. Clarence Clemens came and played at the wedding. The Huminskis gave them $10,000 to help them buy the house in Shark River. She never appreciated ANY THING any one did for her! She had previously been engaged to Al Pienkowski and lived with him for a couple of years in West Long branch and Puerto Rico. She was engaged to Al when she was the maid of honor for Sally and Andy Voight's wedding. Ski was the best man. The next day she came over with her suitcase (and minus her ring that Al gave her) to Southbrook, and later that day she introduced me to Ski. She went back to Florida where she was living. That fall she came up and arrived at our apartment on Halloween. She dressed up as a football player in Chriss high school outfit and I drove her down to Sea bright to surprise Ski. He was as high as a kite that night. I left her there and went home. When Adam was born she wasn't going to let me see him. Don't ask me why, I haven't got a clue. She was always like that. When she threw Ski out of HIS home, he stayed at Sally's two nights and she cut Sally's tires. I gave her $250,00 to get new ones. I was working (I think it was at Harry Beaties so I told him he could stay at Southbrook until he found a place). Chris was in College. Susie blew her top and said I was siding with him. NOT so! I just figured she would get better support money if he werent paying high rate for his own apartment (and she did). He eventually gave me $50 a week to help pay the rent. That gave me more money to do what I wanted. But she never forgave me for helping him, and she wrote me a really nasty letter saying she was divorcing me as a mother. That was that, we haven't spoken since. She poisoned Adam and Steve against me and has NEVER had a good thing to say about me to ANYONE. So be it. I have learned to live without her in my life. Sally has done the same. Linda told me Monday that Adam won't talk to her, so she has basically alienated everyone from her life and has no friends except Kerry. I guess Al's death (April 2005) has upset her, but she should count her blessings that SHE didn't catch AIDS from him. That about says it all for her. I have NEVER had any relationship with her, and Ive tried everything to smooth things over, but she has just been one nasty bitch. She can't hurt me anymore and I must say she's been the BIGGEST disappointment of my life. She has a great personality and can tell a funny story, but God help you if you cross her. She is the MOST VINDICTIVE PERSON I HAVE EVER KNOWN, and she is going to grow old ALL ALONE and LONELY. She will probably die from sclerosis of the liver from all the martinis she drinks. Shes furious that her father is NOT leaving the house to her. She has turned out to be a nasty person who has been screwing one of her best friends husband (Billy Schmidt) for years. Even her father is disgusted with her and finally sees her for what she really is, and I'm sure he is just as disappointed in her as I am. ... NEXT! |
| T h e L o v e l y L o i s S t o r y A Biography of Lois Eleanor White |
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