Old Love, True Love

On honeymoon, 1946

Mom and Dad on their (belated) honeymoon, probably in 1946 or 1947. They were married January 11, 1945, at the Church of the English Martyrs in Cambridge, England.

Church where they were married.

Mom, a pretty English girl raised in the small village of Caldecote, England, and Dad, a wild American airmen raised in New Orleans, met in a tea shop in August 1944. When the war was over in August 1945, Dad went to Germany for the occupation, to help with clearing a concentration camp. He had photos of that which I could not bear to look at after seeing the top two.

Mom was sent to an internment camp for brides of the Americans and Canadians, in Royston, England. There, 200 women were packed into quonset huts to await approval to travel to America. They had to be healthy, so you can imagine how it was--all those women in a metal hut in December in damp England. Mom was declared fit to travel on January 2, 1946, but did not sail on the Queen yMary until February and arrived in NYC in March. Dad had returned in November 1945. Their reunion must have been a joyful one.

They did not have their honeymoon until they were both in America. These two photos were taken on Skyline Drive in Virginia and I can only imagine how happy they were. They remained happy together for 61 years. Today would have been their 74th anniversary.

Mom's childhood home: Ashlyn cottage, built by her father before his death in 1930. Notice the front porch--he must have seen those on his short emigration to Canada because English homes generally do not have porches. 

Dad's home in Arlington, Va. His parents never owned a home, they always rented. This is the house I remember visiting as a very young child, prior to these grandparents moving back to New Orleans after Grandpa's retirement from the Coast Guard. Mom and Dad lived here for about 2 years while Dad built a little house in Centreville, VA, where I was born.

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