| Life went on for Flora and her "kids." Dolores finished | | | | county level, saw to it that he had many saws to |
| nursing and married in 1958. Frank apprenticed to our | | | | sharpen and as long as his hands allowed him he |
| dad after high school and became a fine journeyman | | | | continued to build fine pieces of furniture like small |
| carpenter. "Little" Celeste married on our parents' | | | | tables and desks. |
| Thirtieth Wedding Anniversary and Flora's nest was | | | | Finally, when Leva Dopa stopped working and he |
| finally empty. | | | | became increasingly physically helpless, he just gave |
| She doted on her grandchildren as they came along, | | | | up. One day, mother returned from a hairdressing |
| loving each of them. Dad and she began to take | | | | appointment to find him dead - it was about ten in the |
| vacations to Maine and elsewhere and were active in | | | | morning when she called me and I rushed across town |
| the Franco American Club. | | | | to find my dad with his arms crossed on his chest and |
| I went back to Graduate School in 1965 and in 1968 | | | | stone cold. He was gone from us in this life forever, on |
| earned my Doctorate Degree. My mom and especially | | | | August 7, 1976. |
| my dad told me it was the highpoint of their lives. My | | | | My brother and sisters came to see him before the |
| dad's "You're going to school boy" had come true. | | | | undertaker took him away and ma retired to the |
| Their oldest son, the first to do so among all my dad's | | | | kitchen and continued to furiously mix cake batter for |
| brothers and sister's children, had climbed to the top of | | | | a cake. It was her way to cope with grief. |
| the educational ladder. | | | | I cried for months. My mom soldiered on - finally having |
| In 1963, at the age of fifty-five my dad began to lose | | | | to sell her house and move to an apartment. |
| his balance more and more often, falling once through | | | | She continued to love us all but started a life of her |
| the cellar stairs hole in a house he, and his brother | | | | own for the first time since dad's death. She joined |
| were building. After numerous tests he was diagnosed | | | | Parents Without Partners and became one of their |
| with Parkinson's disease and had to go on disability | | | | most popular members - everyone wanted Flora to |
| because he could no longer be considered safe on the | | | | do the cooking for their parties. |
| job. He was one of the first to be placed on Leva | | | | She and Lida grew closer. I was in my eighth year as |
| Dopa. It worked for a while and he could walk almost | | | | a college professor when my dad died - earning my |
| completely normally. | | | | way through the ranks of assistant and associate |
| Mom loved him dearly and we all sorrowed. She | | | | professor to full professor that my dad lived to see in |
| waited on him hand and foot even to cutting his meat | | | | 1973. |
| on his plate and trying his shoes as the disease | | | | Ma was proud of all her children and grandchildren, but |
| progressed. Dad was a proud man - he continued as | | | | she always held a special place in my heart as her |
| long as he could to sharpen saws and do small jobs in | | | | "Sonny Boy". She kept track of my every move, |
| our house's basement to earn money to supplement | | | | mostly through Lida, as she was at our house or we |
| his disability benefit. His Carpenter Union friends whom | | | | at hers for every major holiday, birthdays, baptisms, |
| he had served as Secretary/Treasure at the local and | | | | and other significant family events. |