April 20 and 24, 1944: Anna writes two letters to her brothers from the home front in Albany, NY. The baby is just getting over being sick and work is being done to get the upstairs apartment ready for the new tenants. The baby continues to grow and amuse the family with her antics and Eddie received another draft deferment, so he is good for another six months. There is also news about friends and neighbors who are in the service.
The baby has been cranky as of late with “her teeth bothering the heck out of her.” After having not slept through the night for the past four days, she is finally starting to feel better. On the eve of her 18 month birthday, she is getting bigger and Anna notes that “Time used to stand still for me when she was so tiny and only a few months ago it started to go by faster.”
Even though Terry is growing, she still amuses with her antics. As Anna tells it, “She can now look out of the window without standing on the tips of her feet and she enjoys running from one window to the other and looking out. When she sees a dog out in the street she barks at him through the window. She says BOW-WOW WUFF WUFF! Today she saw a cat out on the street and she doesn’t know the difference between a cat and a dog and she was barking at him too.”
The upstairs apartment is getting the once over before the new tenants move in. New wallpaper is being hung in the parlor and front room. New tiles are being put in the bathroom and kitchen, and mama, daddy and Eddie are taking care of painting the rest of the apartment. There has been a change in tenets as the Davidsons backed out. They put an ad in the paper and got a new tenant the same day. “The husband is 4-F for some reason… Their name is Mr. & Mrs. Ralph Dennis …I hope that they are going to be nice and she is more my age so I will have company for a change.”
Anna relays the news that her husband Eddie has received another deferment. Anna writes, “I was all excited and I called him up at the shop and told him ‘Hooray we can fight for six more months’ and Eddie got such a kick out of that that he told his parents and they thought it was so funny. Gee, Mr. Martin, Eddie’s boss sure was fighting for him and when he got the notice he said, ‘Now we can breathe again.’ This time for sure I thought that Eddie would be in the Army and I prayed and hoped for the best and sure enough the best has happened.”
Anna writes that Eddie Falkowski finished his training and got his wings. “…he is now a Lt. and he is waiting to get commissioned to an airplane carrier. He is a combat pilot and he chose combat duty in the South Pacific against the Japanese. I hope to see him alive after this war. What he is doing is a mighty dangerous job… What he flies is one of those escort planes in which he is alone by himself … Mary is all worried and she got me all nerved up too. After all, he isn’t my brother but I knew him well and it makes me feel funny to know that he is going into something so dangerous. Mary…says you can now see in Eddie’s letters that he is getting worried himself now that he is going out to do the real thing. I wish him luck and lots of luck and God’s blessing with him because he sure will need it.”
As far as some of the other friends:
- “Joe Dana was home on furlough and he is someplace in Georgia.”
- Helen Donlon, who married James Hanrahan is going to have a baby.
- Mary and Joe Miller came over to visit. Joe is stationed with the Navy in New Jersey and was home for the weekend. He just received a promotion to Seaman 1st Class.