Site Housekeeping -- Posting Update
My 99 year-old grandmother passed away yesterday. I am away from home now and will be attending services today thru Friday, and so posting will be limited. I will endeavor to check in often on comments and post at least some stories between now and then, but it might be sporadic.
She was born in a small village in Greece in 1910, and was arranged to be married at the age of 15 to my grandfather, whom she had never met prior to his courtship. He was 25 at the time and had been in the U.S. on his own since he was 13, also having come from a village in Greece. After the wedding ceremony, they returned together to Gary, Indiana where he had been working in the steel mills. He died of a heart attack in the mill at the age of 63 in 1960. Sadly, I never met him. She was a widow for the next 50 years.
She is survived by 3 children, 6 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren, so far.
Jul 14, 2010 at 4:09 PM
Reader Comments (16)
My deepest sympathy for your Grandmother loss. @99 she was blessed to enjoy 99 years and see her grand kids grow.
God Bless.
It is no understatement to call hers "The greatest generation," and every American owes them a debt of gratitude. For without the values that they embraced, the hardships they endured and the lessons that they learned and never forgot, American working class life would be like Potterville in "It's a Wonderful Life." The rejection those values and lessons is the unraveling of our Nation; don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
You honor her with all the work you've done here, my friend.
when he was 18 in 1949 and living with his family in greece, his dad said you and i are going to live in new york (to escape the communists who were waging a civil war in greece at the time)...we will start a restaurant and then bring the rest of the family...the 2 of them together took the boat, 8 weeks at sea, then arrived in new york...the next day after arriving (and i mean the VERY NEXT DAY), at age 51 his father died of a heart attack in the boarding room they had just rented together...so Louie was then 18, all alone, and didn't speak english...instead of returning to greece, he got a job washing dishes...saved some money then moved to gary, indiana and moved into a tiny house with my dad's family and took a job shoveling coal in the steel mills...after 2 months, he realized he didn't want to spend his life breathing the dust and shoveling coal so he quit and moved to greensboro, north carolina...he got a job as a janitor, sang and played rhythm guitar in a greek band that played weddings on weekends...got married at 24 and started a family...he worked in maintenance at a local company 60 hours per week and struggled with 3 young kids...while also working friday and saturday nights doing wedding gigs with his band...then he decided he couldn't be a janitor and raise a family so he added night school to his busy life...went 3 nights per week for 3 years to satisfy JUST the entrance classes for college...this was at guilford college in greensboro...after he was accepted, he then attended classes at night for the NEXT TEN YEARS...of course while working full-time, raising a family and working weekends as a singer...and at the young age of 42 he got his degree in analytical Chemistry from Guilford...
That was 35 years ago...he has worked as a chemist for an industrial company in greensboro since then...built a hell of a successful career...always getting promoted because everybody loves Louie...(he looks exactly like director Martin Scorsese -- if you want a visual image)...his oldest child Tommy, graduated #1 from his Medical School class and has been an orthopedic surgeon in Charlotte for years now...and his 2 daughters both earned masters degrees and are high-school teachers...
He now has 9 grandchildren, still works, and tells the best jokes of anyone in my family...way to go Louie...you earned everything in your life...