Ancestry Chapter 45
1928-1929 More Photos, More Grandchildren, Head-Counts, One Death
The Norek's at the beach, and "my cousin Helen" photograph. Both the property of the Josephine’s family.
Click photos to enlarge.
Beach photo. Josephine, standing, seems to be with Peter Weber (who her children will later know as Uncle Weber). Other couple presumed to be friends of theirs.
Standing by Jo is Ruthie, kneeling is Poppa Michael Norek, with Gert and Dorothy by his side.
Cousin Helen photo. Helen of course is a first-batch Granddaughter and Josephine is a second-batch daughter. So Helen is Joseph's niece. In the "my cousin" photograph Helen (Cecelia's daughter) is standing between two friends. As mentioned elsewhere, the children all knew the second-batch children were not cousins to the first-batch grandchildren, but cousins is what they called each other because the grew up together like cousins.
The Head-Count, 1928
By the end of 1928, Michael Norek is a 64 year old grandfather of 14. His daughter Lucy has five children, Cecelia has six, and Anna has three.
Michael Norek is also a 64-year-old father of a growing second-batch family. Michael Jr. is 20, Josephine 17, Peter 15, Gertrude 13, Dorothy 11, Dolores 9, Ruth 7, Tom 5 and George 2.
Antonia is 40. She will see her children grow up, live their own lives, and have their own children. Countless christenings, birthdays, graduations are ahead for her.
It has now been 22 years since Helena's death at age 49. To her grandchildren Helena is only a story passed on by her children.
Ruthie later wrote that she and her dad went to early Mass, while everyone else was sleeping, every day. Perhaps those trips down Irving Park Road to St. Ben's at dawn started about here, in 1928.
The Grand Archers.
Click photo to enlarge.
Either photograph alone is so-so, so I put them together.
Photos taken on the same spot (see background) so probably taken on the same day.
Left is Michael J. Norek and right is Michael S. Norek (Michael Jr.).
Gertrude on her First Communion day. Taken on Mozart with the neighbors' buildings in the background. Marked 1929. Click to enlarge.
The Norek's at Niagra Falls, 1929.
Photo is marked "the kids" - guessing:
Michael Jr. far right
Peter
far left
Gert center rear
Dorothy and Dolores center front
second
right – Poppa Michael?
Click to enlarge.
Leo dies 1929, Chicago
Lucy’s husband Leo dies at age 45 in 1929. Lucy is a widow at age 41 with five children ranging in age from Betty at age 18 down to Harold at age 3.
As Sister Ruth later wrote:
Leo died suddenly, of a heart attack. I saw my sister Lucy crying by the coffin, and then at the funeral Mass more people were crying. Bewildered at age 8, I pulled on my mother's dress and asked why everyone was crying. "Because they miss him." So now she knew, there are two sides to dying -- not just going to heaven.
The funeral. A dreary day, a small unlit church, like the catacombs. As somber as the mood.
(From Ruth's 1955 mini-bio.)
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