How I Met Bertha

It was 1941 when I went to a dance where I met a fellow...his name was Armando. His wife was with him. When the dance was over, we went home, but after a few days, he invited me to his house. I went to visit him and there was a girl sitting in the living room. She was knitting something that looked to me like a tablecloth but then I noticed it was too long. My friend came and introduced her to me. From that day on we started talking. I asked her what was she making. She said she was knitting a bedspread. We kept talking and a few weeks passed. I visited her almost every day after that.

One day I invited her to go with me to Coney Island and she accepted, so we made a date for the following Saturday. I picked her up early in the morning and we had a wonderful day together. I brought her home that evening and left after having some coffee.

We were getting along very well...getting to know each other and the time was passing by, so one day I said to her, "Maybe someday we’ll get manied and probably use the bedspread on our bed." She started laughing. She said, "Who knows?" Well, since that day we became very good friends and basically fell in love with each other. People asked, "What was it about Bertha that attracted her to me?" I said that she was shy and a very nice person. We saw each other for about nine months when we decided to get married and the time came for us to use the bed spread. It lasted for many years.

We got married on February 21st, 1942. Two months later, I was drafted in the Army. I spent two years in the states and in 1944 I was sent overseas. I returned in 1945. We had two children, the first one is Aida, who was born in 1943 and the second is Hilda, who was bom in 1945. Bertha passed away in 1994.