Happy Birthday, Winni

Today is a very good friends birthday.   She's in her 90's - I don't know the exact number, didn't ask, don't care.    She loved us from the first time she saw us.

Ted had gone to work for GTE and we lived in a garage that had been converted to a little apartment.   We had a picture window in our bathroom.    We lived there when Kim was born. 

One morning in January we woke to ice on the inside of our windows right beside Kim's bed.  So a search for new housing began.   We had very little money and the houses in Mt. Carmel, IL were too expensive.   Someone told us about a house in the country we might want to look at.  

We called the people and set a time to go see it that night.  When we arrived they had a roaring fire in a beautiful fireplace.   Their house was so pretty.   They said the electricity had been turned off at the rental house but Don would take his big beam lantern to show us the house.  It was hard to see at night but we looked and they said the rent was $45 a month.  Then I saw the kitchen and there were two sinks in it.   Also this Don guy stuttered and then here was this house with two sinks.   Good heavens I thought.   So...being the nice person I was (AHEM) I politely said, "We'll call you"  and at the same time Ted said, "We'll take it".    I thought he'd lost his mind.  

Little did I know what wonderful people they were.    They loved us from the first time we were there and did everything they could to help us.   The day we moved in Kim had not had a bath for three days as our house was just too cold.   So...their oldest daughter, Judy, kept Kim while we unloaded our meager furnishings.   During that afternoon Judy gave Kim two baths and I think Kim slept sounder than she had in days.

We did not have a television so they invited us over every Sunday evening to watch T.V. and every Thursday night to watch Tennessee Ernie Ford.    When we finally saved enough to buy our first T.V. I think they were about as sad as I'd ever seen them.

They furnished us a lawn mower, we had all the fruit we could eat or can - FREE and I couldn't begin to count the number of free meals we ate over there.   They really adopted us, they just didn't make it legal.   To this day we call Winnie - AUNT WINNIE and though Don died many years ago he was always UNCLE DON too.   Such wonderful people.   Loved us just for who we were and even though we smoked and I'm sure they knew we drank too they never tried to change us.   They just loved us.  

We were two very young, very lucky people.