~Claire
My husband was one of the first ones back from World War II. His name was Keith. He was a Sergeant, and they asked him if he wanted to stay in the service and they would make him an Officer. But he said, "No, I want to go home." He had been in two years. He had been in Africa, Italy, Sicily, France, Germany, and Belgium. So, he came home. He was awarded two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star.
During the war, there were 50 men and 1300 women on the campus at Ohio U. Everybody was after Keith, so I was lucky that I got him. We met on a blind date. There were three guys and three gals, and we went out together. Then, the next day, my best friend and the guy that she was with said that Keith wanted to go out with me. So, we started dating. We both went to Ohio U, and in the summers he would go to Syracuse and I would go to Cleveland. So we just dated and dated for a year and a half.
I proposed to him. I just said, "I think we should get married!" I didn't have a ring at the time, but he got one and gave it to me.
I admired Keith's sense of humor. Everybody just loved Keith. He was like my father; everybody loved my father. Keith kept a notebook of all of his jokes that he knew. I still have it. When we would go to parties he always had to tell jokes. He was a good dancer too.
Our first daughter, Nancy, we named after our song "Nancy with the Laughing Face." Frank Sinatra sang it; he sang it to his wife Nancy. That was our song, so we named Nancy after it. She was born early and we hadn’t picked out a middle name. So we just went through a book and when we got to Nancy Lynn that sounded right. So that's why we named her that. She wasn't due until July, but she was born May 16.
Two and a half years, plus a few months later we had our second daughter, Janet. She was named after my best friend in Syracuse. Her middle name is after my sister Lucille. She was born just outside of Washington in Landover, Maryland. My brother was at Fort Meade and came every weekend. Keith drove there every weekend to pick up my brother and brought him back to our apartment so he didn't have to stay where he was. My brother was crazy about Janet. He would say, "Get her away from me! Get her away from me! I can't stand it; she's too pretty!" And she was cute.
Every minute was a proud moment for me as a parent; there wasn't just one proud moment.
Keith, the girls and I danced every night in our living room. They liked that. And Keith would play ball with them too.
The saddest times for us as a family were when we got moved. I remember when we left Syracuse. Keith called and said that we were going to be transferred. I was scrubbing my kitchen floor and my friend Janet came over. She was beside me and we were both scrubbing and we were both crying. It was tough. I didn't have a car and Keith traveled all the time. So I got very close to my friends, wherever we lived. And then I had to uproot and move somewhere else. I wasn't able to keep in touch with many of them because by the time we got settled we would get moved again.
But we always had a wonderful life. We were always doing things together because we were the only people that we knew. It was all that moving that made us so close because they didn't know anybody else and they would stay home. We were a very close family.
The key to having a successful marriage is having a husband like Keith, and girls like Nancy and Janet.
One thing that I want to pass on to my family is that you can get through anything. You can get through anything if you really try.
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