Aunt Emilie and all this

I can't believe that it has taken me so long to write about my Great Aunt Emilie. She was the one constant, the rock in my mom's life from the time she came east until Aunt Emilie died in 1988, I think. This takes away nothing from my father. He was always working hard, providing for our family. Aunt Emilie was the person who was always just there Emilie Crowther Smith was born in December 26,1899 in Wallkill Orange County. She had one brother and two sisters. One of her sisters is my grandmother, Ruth. I have surmised, guessed, pulled facts together, out of thin air, to come up with a theory that may or may not be true. Here are the facts. Uncle Dud, Dudleigh Smith, Aunt Emilie's brother had a girlfriend Helen. The story goes that she contracted TB. Uncle Dud's mom takes her in to nurse her back to health because that was what people did back then. I think Aunt Emilie told me that. The following are facts. Aunt Emilie's sisters Ruth, my grandmother and Cornelia called Babsie get TB, maybe from Helen. Ruth goes to a drier climate El Paso Texas and Babsie stays at home which in the twenties is the farm in Nanuet. Babsie dies on September 22, 1928. An FYI, Ruth and Emilie's mom dies in 1925 (TB related?). Ruth continues on in El Paso meets and marries Milton, whose father James contracted TB, I believe in Baltimore somewhere around 1916-17. Ruth and Milton marry and move to Albuquerque NM after James's death in 1928. They raise two kids. Around 1946 it has been about eighteen years since Ruth has talked to anyone from her family. In the now where it is simple to pick up a phone, call someone and talk for an hour, back in 1946 a phone call cost a dollar a minute, big money then. Ruth and her family back east may have talked over the phone for short periods In 1946-7 Emilie, whose husband had died a few years earlier and her son Wally go to Albuquerque to visit her sister and my mother. This is the first time my mom and Aunt Emilie meet. My mother, Cornelia is named after Ruth, her mom and Emilie and Ruth's sister Cornelia. Wally remembers going to New Mexico and spending time with his first cousin his own age and the amazing different world she lived in. They go down town and spend the five dollars given to him by his grandfather. He discovers horney toads. Milton who'd never taken his father's death well, drinks. Sometime before Ruth's death he promises her he will quit drinking and he does until she dies. The night of her death she is coughing and someone hears something crack. Ruth starts to have trouble breathing. She is rushed to the hospital where she dies. My mom is about fourteen. After her death Milton goes back to drinking. Milton's mother, Gertrude, a women with an iron will and a determination to not let life beat her lives with them trying to make life as normal as possible. She works at a hospital for the mentally disabled called Los Lunas. In 1946, at the age of sixteen, Milton's son Milton called Tonny enlists in the Air Force. A career path that will serve him well over the next forty or so years. He will live in Texas, Virginia, Japan, Germany and finally settle in Massachusetts. In 1948 Emilie will pay or help finance the cost of Cornelia coming east. Cornelia takes a train to Chicago. A friend of her father's accompanies her to Chicago. She then takes the train to New York City and is met by Aunt Emile and Wally. I don't know how long she is east. Aunt Emilie and Wally with maybe Uncle Dud and their father Walter Smith, who is now blind, live in Sparkill, NY. She is told she has to go to school while she is there. She goes to the same school as Wally until the end of school. While east Aunt Emilie takes her sightseeing. I have some pictures of her and Wally on the Staten Island Ferry I think. She returns home and the next year comes back. Again living in the house on Kings Highway in Sparkill. While there she meets the breadman. Yes back then everyone one had things delivered to there house, bread, milk, diapers and that was because wives were home while husbands worked and usually there was only one car. What can I say it was the 1950's. The breadman is William Muller, 'Bill', He meets Cornelia and at some point he asks her out. Because of their difference in ages, Bill is about 30 she is around 18 Cornelia's cousin Wally joins them on their early dates. Eventually they are engaged. Bill will not marry her until she turns 19. When she does they are married in the Tappan Reform Church in Tappan NY.Aunt Emilie throws the reception. Their Honeymoon is a road trip to Montreal Canada. When they return they rent a house on Route 9W just out of South Nyack. Sometime in the early 50's Bill's family home lost in the depression is put up for sale. His brother lives in a house next door he had built. Bill purchases the house for about $8000.00. Remeber that was the time of penny candy. The House consists of a living room, a dining room, a small kitchen, a bathroom and one bedroom. /