“Mother took that job at the church because she was always interested in the outdoors and science things. She was always interested in children. So she was the Girl Scout leader. Lilian ______ had three little kids. The doctor told her she needed some kind of outdoor interest because she needed a break. She heard about the Girl Scouts and offered to help as an assistant. That’s how my mother met her, and they got to be very good friends. That’s how it all started. Lilian met me, and she liked me. She knew her brother was 26 and not yet married, which was scandalous back then. They planned to somehow get us introduced. Henry only came up once in a while to visit his mother who lived next to his sister who lived right around the corner from my mother where I lived. When he visited, he went to church with his sister. He was always involved in church. He was the treasurer of his church and had been the Sunday school super intendant.

“I sang in the choir back then, and I was always a little late. I had my robe with me, and I was rushing down the steps to get to the choir room to get my robe on to get ready for the processional; we had a processional back then. Lilian and Henry had just arrived at the church, and they were going up the steps. Right there on the steps she said, ‘Oh, Edith. Do you have a minute? I would like to introduce you to my brother.’ I was in such a hurry, but I didn’t want to be impolite. So I smiled and said, ‘Okay,’ and she introduced us. I said, ‘Hello, nice to meet you.’ And that was it. They went up to the church, and I went down and hurried to get ready for choir and didn’t think any more of it. We had the whole church service. Our processional went in; then at the end we had our recessional where we walked out singing. Again I met them on the steps just by chance, according to them. He asked, ‘May I drive you home from church?’ Ordinarily I would not get into a car with a strange man I didn’t even know. But I thought, ‘Well this is Lilian’s brother. So he must be okay.’ And I said , ‘Sure.’ Lilian said she had something else to do, so we could go on ahead. He drove me home, which was only a few blocks really.

“I was shocked when I saw the car. I met him and agreed to ride with him before I even knew what car he had. It was a beautiful, brand new, pale green convertible. And convertibles were THE thing back then. I was shocked when I saw it, but I didn’t let on. I acted as if it was an every day occurrence to get into a brand new convertible. He opened the door for me and let me into the car. The top was down. He drove me home, and I guess it made a big impression in the neighborhood. Seeing Edith _____ coming home in this beautiful car. I thanked him for driving me home. I didn’t invite him into the house or anything. I just said, ‘Thank you very much for taking me home.’ He opened the door for me and let me out, and I went into the house. That’s how we met. It was a couple days later that he called me on the phone and asked me out for my first date with him. I agreed, and it was not because of the car. I was not impressed by things like that. If I hadn’t liked the way he acted and talked and everything, I wouldn’t have agreed to go out with him. I thought he seemed like a nice guy, and I knew he had a nice sister. He did not know that Lilian and my mother had arranged this, neither of us did. It just happened that when he met me, he took a liking to me and decided to ask me if he can drive me home.

“Our first date. We went to see a play downtown. It was called ‘By the Beautiful Sea’. It was a play at the Shubert Theater*, and afterward we went to dinner. He took me to this Italian restaurant in New Jersey right over the border. It was really nice. We got to talking during the dinner. I told him about my work and my school. I was going to night school at that time. Journalism school and working at the Bulletin. I told him about what I was writing. He told me about his work. He had just graduated college and had his first job. Well, he graduated a little while ago of course, we were both 26 at the time. He had gone an extra year because he was on the plan where you go to college for 6 months then work for 6 months. He had gone a little longer, but he had worked his way through college. A lot of the young men took that path. So we were talking and got to know each other better. I was against any kind of alcohol at that time, but he did order a chianti, which came in a nice basket-covered carafe. I broke my rule and did have a little glass of wine. After they poured the wine, they gave us the bottle as a keepsake. I had it for years, but I don’t know what happened to it.

“After that he called me again, and we went out again and got to know each other better. I already knew his family. So that’s the story. We would have been married 70 years this October. 70 years.”

*Now called the Miller Theater. Located in Philadelphia.

As told by my grandmother, affectionately known as Mom-mom.