Chapter 13. Celebrations and Family Goals are Reached

Father and mother completed fifty years of marriage in 1948. Their golden wedding anniversary was marked by a family dinner held at The Gables Restaurant located on Lorain Avenue near Kamms Corners. I recall it as a quiet intimate family gathering that was especially pleasing to father. As he looked across the table he remarked that he was rich! He explained that he was not rich in wealth or material things, that his riches were in family. He concluded by saying, “Truly, it is better to be rich in family than in money!” He was surrounded by his four sons of whom he was so proud along with the wives and children of those of us who were married. There were brother Nick with wife Leona and daughter Joanne, Sol and wife Marian and sons, Thomas, Robert, and Michael, and myself with my wife, Grace, and infant son, Edward Rocco. Brother Art was accompanied by his fiancé Rita Kemer, a nurse that he had met and fallen in love with at St. Vincent Charity Hospital. She was a demure blonde, attractive young lady from Parma, Ohio.

Art and Rita were married in the summer of the following year. Theirs was another lovely wedding that was solemnized at St. Charles Church in Parma with Father Monahan officiating. Rita was attended by her three sisters. Her twin sister, Mercedes, was her Maid of Honor. Sisters Sylvia and Virginia were bridesmaids. I was Art’s Best Man. Vincent LaMaida and Gene Zannoni rounded out the wedding party.

Art, having finished his third year of residency at St. Vincent Charity Hospital, had begun his medical practice in Brother Nick’s offices which were located at Kamm’s Corners, not too far from Fairview General Hospital. After about a year or so, Art moved his medical practice to Parma where he and Rita purchased their first home.

Brother Nick’s practice was flourishing. Brother Sol had taken the leadership role at the Horn and Norris Lithograph Company, and I had made a place for myself in the Fleet Branch Library neighborhood. I had been accepted by that Polish community as “Their Librarian.” In addition to providing library service to the people, I was continuing to do the Library’s radio programs. I had succeeded Charles A. Vanik (who later was elected to the LI.S. Congress), as President of the Southeast Community Council, after having served as his vice-president in that organization. To top all this activity off, I had been recruited along with several other young Cleveland librarians by Mortimer Adler and Chicago University’s young president, Robert Hutchins to take their Great Books course and to lead the Great Books Discussion Groups in the branches of the Cleveland Public Library. Father was so very proud during this time, because he had completed what he had set out to do. He had lived to see each of his sons successfully at work in their chosen professions, and happy in what they were doing.