Aunt Helen and uncle Emil had three children. Doris, born September 29, 1925, Billy Dean born 08-27-28 and Harold Gene born 01-21-36. Aunt Helen hadn’t been feeling well for some time and then found she was pregnant.. When Harold Gene was born it was discovered that she had breast cancer. In 1936 that was a death warrant. The only thing I can remember about her is that one night all of the immediate family members were standing out in the lawn of the hospital. The thing I remember is how unusual everyone was acting. I asked Mama what was wrong and she told me aunt Helen was very sick. The family took turns going in to see her. When one came back, another would go in. This continued until quite late. It’s strange how some events impress children and leave a memory. That is the only thing I can recall concerning her. I don’t know if she died that night or later but three months after Harold Gene was born, aunt Helen died. She lived her whole life in Blair, Ne. and was only 31 years old.

Uncle Alfred and Helen’s mother had been married previously so they could be a family to raise Harold Gene. (I mentioned in an earlier post that Helen’s mother had been widowed for some time and that she and my uncle Alfred had married.) Doris and Billy were only ten and seven when their mother died. Uncle Emil moved to Omaha and kept them with him.

I do not remember Doris and Billy until I was about five years old. Uncle Emil and my folks were living in trailers on the west end of Omaha. They rented space from a farmer who raised asparagus to market. My mother was the only one home to watch after the four of us. (Doris, Billy, my older brother Louis and me.)

Uncle Emil did the best he could with the kids but it was hard to work and raise them as well. Had it not been for my mother it would have been worse.

Uncle Emil frequented a certain tavern and I think it was partly because there was a lady bar-tender there that gave him an ear……as good bar-tenders do. After courting her for some time, they were married. Aunt Mardelle had two children of her own, Gary and Claudia so with Doris and Billy they had a full house. It wasn’t too many years until the older kids married and moved on……..and uncle Emil and aunt Mardelle had a child of their own. Raymond was born when they were both middle-aged and stayed with them into their retirement years.

Aunt Mardelle was good for uncle Emil. She saved money and paid the bills while she brought order into the home and family. They had pretty much been loose canons up till then. At one time they moved to Missouri in a rural area and he and my Dad had a saw-mill together. They operated that for some time before he sold out and went back up north to Omaha. He continued contracting jobs from plumbers until he retired and moved back to Missouri.

This time they bought property around the resort area of Kimberling City. He was quite a craftsman and they enjoyed making things and selling them. They were living there when Silver Dollar City was starting up and when he found out they needed someone to demonstrate running a saw-mill he applied for the job. He was a natural. He wore striped overalls and always had a home-made cigarette hanging from his mouth . I can see him yet. He was a rascal and his eyes held a mischievous twinkle except when he was serious……….not too often. He was employed there as long as he was able to work but eventually he had to give it up. Aunt Mardelle had been ailing for some time with a bad heart condition and he was bothered with various age problems.

They moved back to Omaha near Raymoad and were there until aunt Mardelle’s death. Uncle Emil stayed with Raymond and the other children in the area until his health declined. His last years were spent in a nursing home. Where most people dread this, it was fun for him. He had the gift of adapting no matter what the circumstance. He liked the food, the nurses and the other folks living there. He enjoyed life right up to the last and lived into his 90’s. It happened that he was the last of the seven boys to die. That tells me that where the others worked their lives away that it’s probably a good thing not to take life too seriously. Uncle Emil never let work get in his way of a good time often at the frustration of his patents and brothers. Somewhere there is a special place for the habit-breakers and the ones who stop to smell the roses. I think after his escape from certain death in France he decided to live life his way…….it’s a fragile and fleeting thing………for him it lasted a long time.

My cousin, Doris, married and had two sons. She too had breast cancer and died when she was only 37-years old. Billy married and had several children by his first wife who was killed in a car accident in Oklahoma. He married a second time and is retired somewhere in Florida I am told. We have no way of knowing where. Harold Gene married and had a little boy……….he served in the Army and died of cancer while still in the military. He was only 26 years old. I have no information on Raymond.

Uncle Emil had a lot of tragedy in his life but somehow found a way to resist being a victim. I think he deserves credit for that.

Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther