The "Family I Never Got To Know" Story

It was an ordinary day. Looking at all the the photos on our antique jelly cupboard. Photos of the kid's high school graduation photos, photos of our grandkids, photo of my mom and dad, and a photo of my wife Carol with her mom and dad. Charlie and Grace were Carol's parents who both passed away while they were very young. Grace, my mother-in-law, worked with my dad at Meiskey's Jewelry Store at the corner of North Mulberry and West King Street. Neat modern three story building with a side porch. The first floor was a wholesale jewelry story where they also did watch repairs. Many a day I would visit my dad while he was working at the store. When I was younger I enjoyed going with dad in the evening to the store and organize the shipping boxes in the back room were Paul "Red" Y. did the packaging and mailing of orders. Any guesses why they called him Red? Howard R. was another employee of the storeas well as my mom's cousin, Jim S. who later purchased a jewelry store and hired to to work part-time after his retirement from Meiskey's. Back to the story; my dad would work an hour or two in the evening and then we would head home to 929 N. Queen St. I enjoyed the evening rides with dad with the windows down in the car and the warm summer air hitting me in the face as I stuck my head out the window. No seatbelts, airbags or protection of any kind was used in the cars back then. All through high school and college I would visit and say Hi! to everyone in the place. A few change of faces occurred, but the same old guys still worked there. Dad ran the place for many years. Then when I was a junior at Millersville University, dad hired Grace B. as a sales clerk. She was such a nice person. Always talked to me about school and what I was doing with my life. Little did I know she had a daughter at that time. Well, as a senior in college, I broke up with my girlfriend of a few years. Kind of upset me at the time. Seems that Grace's daughter had just gone through the same situation with her boyfriend. One day my dad suggested I date Carol B., who was the daughter of Grace who worked with him at Meiskey's. Sure why not. At the same time, Grace was trying to convince Carol to date me. She didn't want anything to do with me, but eventually, with her mom's prodding and to get her mom off her back, she agreed to go out with me. And the rest is, as they say, history. At the time Carol lived only a block from me on Skyline Drive at an apartment unit with her mom and dad. The year before, she and her parents had moved from Martic Forge in southern Lancaster County to the apartments. I arrived for our date on my Honda cycle and knocked on the door of the apartment. Was met by her day Charlie. We hit it off pretty good from the start. I got to know both of them during the next year as Carol and I dated. Every Sunday I would go to her house for supper and Grace would make something great for supper. Loved her cooking! One evening she had some kind of meat that I thought was beef, but after eating it she told me it was venison. Got a kick out of watching me eat something that I had never tasted before. Carol and I often would borrow Charlie's Harley and take it for rides around the county. Biggest thing in the world, it was. Fell over one time and took both Carol and me to pick it up again. Time passed and it wasn't long before I asked Charlie if I could ask Carol to marry me. He got a big smile on his face and shook my hand. "Proud to have you as part of the family," he told me. Wow, was that easy, I thought. I was so nervous the entire week before I asked him. He made it easy! Four years later, while Carol was pregnant with our first child, her mom, Grace died of smoking related cancer. We were heartbroken. She would have loved having a grandchild. Carol's father eventually remarried, but he also died of smoking related cancer shortly after he retired from Slaymaker Lock. Our youngest son, who was born in 1976 was very young when that occurred. I never got to know either one of them as well as I should have because of their untimely deaths. I'm sure our children would have loved to have memories of their Grandparents as well. Life isn't always fair. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - pixs from the top are Charlie and Grace, Carol as a child with her parents, and my In-laws at our house at manor House Apartments in 1967.