March 18, 1945: Anna writes a letter to her brothers with some news from the home front. She is “doing the best” but doesn’t know how things will be “when the new papoose comes.”
This is one of the first letters that she has had a chance to write since Dad left Albany to return to McCook from his furlough. She reminisces, “He stayed only a short week, but it was better than nothing. Mama and daddy and Anthony came to our house for dinner the Sunday before he went back to camp. That was the least we could do for him. When Anthony left home to go to the station baby Terry knew he went and she said, ‘Antos pojechal na choo-choo train do camp’ (Anthony went on the choo-choo train to the camp) and she let out a stream of tears so I joined her to keep her company. Well, anyway we got used to the quiet again although it was kind of hard the first week.”
Speaking of Terry, Anna had the adventure of taking her to the doctor’s office for a vaccination. It went…as well as could be expected. “The doctor sat her on a chair and lit his lamp on her arm and she looked at him with a question mark and the doctor looked at us and smiled. I guess she sensed that something fishy was going around because she started to slide off the chair. Eddie put her on it again and sat by her. Wow, what a howl she let out when he stuck her and she started to yell ‘Boli mnie’ (‘It hurts me”). The doctor started laughing and he said that she was the first one who did so much noise over a vaccination. He said that most of the kids just sit still and wait and listen and look.”
Anna writes about Eddie Falkowski’s wedding. “He got married … March 17th on St Patrick’s Day. The girl was Catherine Lamb and we got a special invitation from them…” Anna writes that they only stayed for the wedding at the church and did not go to the reception, due to her “condition” of expecting a child in a few months. As Anna expresses it, “I would have felt funny walking around the way I look now advertising the fact to the new bride that she would one day fall victim to foul play and look the same way. I don’t know how other people feel, but I don’t like to have people look me over so closely. Mary [Miller] was one of the bridesmaids… Joe was in the pew with the family.”
She writes more about the wedding. “Eddie Falkowski’s wedding was very nice. …Papa Lamb gave his daughter away. The little church which they have there in Nassau is very nice both inside and out. Eddie has to report back to his base for Easter Sunday. Those bums wouldn’t even let him stay home for that one day. Well, that’s the armed forces for you….Eddie himself looks good and he has grown a little bit taller.”
She also writes about a visit that the couple made to the house. “Eddie was over with his fiancé when Anthony was still home and Terry made a hit with him. She had him playing hide and seek with her and riding him like a horse until she had him completely tired out. He sat down on the couch to recuperate and even there she wouldn’t give him any rest. Well he knows or rather has an idea what he’s in for now.”
In other news about friends from Albany…
- Their friend Anthony Harzynski was killed in action.
- “Peter Andrews, the brother of Anne Andrews from Castleton-on-the-Hudson got killed on Iwo.” He was a Marine and one of three brothers.
- “Eddie’s cousin Stanley Szmitkowski from Cohoes got killed on Luzon and last Sunday…a solemn High Mass was celebrated for him…”
- Fred Murphy “from Orange Street” was wounded.
- Lucy Rutulo who “used to live on Broadway” but now lives on Wilkins Avenue is engaged to be married.
- “Mrs. Dunn next door is about two weeks overdue…”
After a few more details, Anna acknowledges that she has “covered the news on the home front” and signs off with her traditional “So Long, Good Luck, and God Bless You.”