Memories Of Old Les In Time
Continued
Memories ~ Page 4
My Dad was retiring and I was going to take
over his business. He had taught me everything
I knew and he was good at what he did.
August 19, 1952 we welcomed another member to our family.
Another little girl.
The new baby brought us alot of
joy and helped quite a bit to
overcome our loss but
I just couldn't seem to shake my deep sadness.
I probably wasn't much help to Una Marie at that time.
Mostly I just stayed very busy with work.
I built Una's parents their retirement home.
It wasn't too far from us and it was near the Church.
Neither of them drove a car, but it
was close enough to downtown that they could walk.
a contractor myself.
I took a partner that I had known since High School.
His name was Chuck. He had also worked for my Dad.
He was a good carpenter and I needed the help.
My Dad remarried a couple of years
after my Mother died.
I had a very hard time accepting it.
His new wife was very good to the kids,
but I was having such a hard time accepting
my Mother's death, that I just couldn't get past it.
Thoughts of why my Mother would have done what
she did just wouldn't leave me.
I decided I wanted to get away for awhile.
We bought a travel trailer and
we took the kids and headed west to see California.
Una Marie had some family out there,
and my oldest sister, Chloe,
had married and settled in California.
We thought it would be fun to stop along the way
and just see all the sights we came across.
We had a great time.
We stopped at the Grand Canyon,
showed the kids the Petrified Forest,
Indian Villages in New Mexico, and then on to Disney Land.
We stopped at many of the tourist attractions
and then on to visit our relatives.
It felt good to get away with just
the family and not think about much else.
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Una Marie on a Horse!!
She was so much fun!
When we returned, things seemed to be getting back to normal.
They say time heals all wounds
and time was going by quickly.
In March, 1958, Una Marie's Father died.
He had a heart attack and died at home.
He was a good Father and we were going
to miss him terribly.
I kept busy with our family and work.
Una would help me at night with the books and billing and
business was good.
My Dad had a good reputation in town as
a contractor and everyone in town
knew he had taught me everything.
I had some big shoes to fill,
and I wanted him to be proud of me.
I was good at what I did and I took pride in it.
I had built my Dad a smaller retirement home and
he and his new wife lived there.
I was 39 years old,
when my Dad died, in August, 1958.
He had already had a few strokes
so it wasn't as much of a shock
as when my Mother died.
I was at the hospital standing next
to his bed when he died.
He motioned for me to come close.
He was trying to tell me something,
but since his stroke,
he could barely speak.
I couldn't understand what he was trying to say.
I always wondered if he might have been trying
to tell me he was proud of me.
I wondered if it was something about my mother,
or maybe he was just trying to say goodbye and
wanted to tell me he loved me.
I would never know.
I told him I loved him and
I just held his hand until he passed.
I think it was then that I really started falling apart.
I couldn't shake the feelings I was having
and I was falling deeper and deeper into a depression.
Another year passed.
It was summertime 1959.
Una and I decided to take a trip
to Florida and reminisce about our wedding days.
We took the kids and on the way stopped to visit my other
sister, Lillian. She was now a professor at the University
of Alabama and lived in Birmingham
with her husband and children.
We stopped to see Elvis' house in Memphis.
Una loved that!!
She just loved everything about Elvis!!
We stopped to see alligator farms and whatever
else was on the way.
We went back to see Boca Raton and how it had grown!
The hotel that had been the barracks when we were last there,
was now restored to the
original luxury resort it once was.
It was beautiful.
We enjoyed the trip and were gone for about a week.
When we returned home, the depression started again.
I couldn't go anywhere without something
reminding me of things I had lost.
I know I should have been focused more
on the things I had in my life, but I couldn't.
I felt like the walls were closing in on me.
**-->Click Here for Where Were You<---**
Una and I made the decision to move to Florida.
I think I was suffering such severe depression
that it got to the point where I just didn't care much
about anything except our family.
We asked Una's Mother to come with us.
She said no.
She said this was her hometown and she didn't want to leave.
We were sad about leaving her in St. Charles.
We hoped she would change her mind once we were gone
and would come live with us.
She was all we had left of family
now and we wanted her with us.
I gave the business and everything in it to my partner.
The business was in good shape
and he was more than happy to take it.
I gave him all the tools,
materials, and the contracts we had.
I just wanted to be rid of everything.
We sold our house and moved to Hollywood, Florida.
It was September 1959. I was 40 years old.....
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