March 5 — How did they meet? You’ve documented marriages, now, go back a bit. Do you know the story of how your parents met? Your grandparents?

[Note: This post originally ran during the Fearless Females series in March 2010]

My parents met when my father returned home from serving in the Navy during World War II. My mother’s family had moved next door to his family and my mother was friends with his sister, Betty. Betty and her husband John would take their son Jackie to the park or zoo and my mother would go along. When my father came home from the service he went on the outings too and then the two started dating. My parents fell short of celebrating 53 years of marriage—my mother passed away a month before their anniversary. My mother’s parents had an arranged marriage. As the story goes, my grandfather was working in the coal mines of Fairpoint, Ohio and was friends with my grandmother’s brother-in-law. My grandfather was looking for a bride who was literally just “getting off the boat” and his friend John said his wife’s sister was soon coming to America and set the two up. My dad’s parents met at the boarding house my grandmother’s sister, Mary, ran in Duquesne, PA,, when he was working in the steel mill there.

Copyright, 2011, Lisa A. Alzo

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