Loss of Tony's Mother

When my baby Ann was one year old, all the children were going through the measles. Four of the children were just getting better. We were waiting for the baby to get the measles. I felt like a nurse going up and down taking care of the children.

We heard a knock at the door. We opened the door; there was an old friend of my husband called Mike. He didn't look too happy. We let him in the house. He said to my husband Tony, “I'm a good friend of yours. I felt it was my duty to come and inform you that your mother fell down the steps and has broken her neck.” My husband got into his friend's car and away they went.

Tony found the doctor there. His mother had lost her speech. They carried her upstairs and put her in his sister Rose's bed in her apartment. Tony's mother had gone to stay at her daughter's house for the day. A pail of coal was needed for the day. She had volunteered to get the pail of coal. While going down the steps, she tripped and fell the whole flight of stairs.

They had a nurse around the clock for her and the doctor twice a day. She was unconscious most of the time. When she did get out of unconsciousness once in a while she could talk, she tried to make us understand. One time she motioned for me to get near her. Then she called her daughter Louise, took our hands and laid them one hand on top of the other. We understood that meant we should be friends. We couldn't help getting tears in our eyes. Her wish has been fulfilled through thick and thin. We are friends; we are more like two sisters.

My mother-in-law lived one week and then she passed away. She was 76 years old. She had been a widow about 25 years. She raised her family to do good for the world, be religious, and that God would take care of them. We all missed her very much. My husband cried like a baby.

In those days the dead were laid out in their homes; she was laid out in her daughter Rose's home because she lived in an apartment across the street. All her dear friends lived around there. When all this happened I had four children getting over the measles and the baby Ann was just getting them. I couldn't be at the wake too much.

I cooked soup and whole meals of leg of veal, pork roast and all that goes with it. My husband would carry everything back and forth with his car. My father would come to baby-sit for me so I could go to the wake sometimes and to the funeral. We bought eight plots at Saint Vincent's cemetery in Madison, N.J. My mother-in-law was laid to rest with a big funeral. We all missed her very much because she had been so active and had helped everyone. [obituary]