Once my mother and I were back in Rhode Island it was important for my mother to establish a seemingly normal life for us. We moved into my grandmother's tenement house. Our little apartment was on the third floor. While I do not remember the incident, it has been said that either my "Nana" or my mother would bundle me up and place me in the carriage in the back yard. They would then hook a clothes line with a bell that went all the way up to the second and the third floors. That way they could leave me unattended and if I woke up or squawked the bell would ring and someone would climb down the stairs to make sure I was okay. Can't imagine anyone doing that today!
Thelma went to work at the Bulova watch company as the company nurse. I was farmed out to a wonderful older couple, Harold and Margaret Dickenson. Aunt Margaret and Uncle Harold, as I was to call them, were wonderful to me in the early years of my life. Between my Nana, my mother,Aunt Margaret and Uncle Harold, I was very much loved. Uncle Harold loved 'lawn bowling' and I vaguely remember him taking me on occasion to the old men's lawn bowling club.
My grandmother had two sisters... My aunt Dot and my aunt Edna. For reasons almost beyond my understanding, my aunt Edna and my grandmother did not speak to each other, this being due to a mantle clock which belonged to my great-grandmother. I do not remember which sister actually ended up with the clock at my great-grandmother's death, but I do know that the two never really were close after that. What a shame. My aunt Dot on the other hand was a very funny woman with many children and grand children who all lived close to one another in Central Falls, RI. This was the extended family I grew to love as a toddler.
