I Will Always Wonder

My mother was from England. I have always wondered why she and my grandmother decided to make the voyage to live in the United States. She came to the US at the age of 17. She had graduated from Dormer-Wells School at that age. Upon arrival, she started to work at a bank in Boston. My grandmother was a men’s tailor, altering many suits throughout her life.

I know some things about their early life, but the reason they decided to come to the US was always not answered even though the question was asked. Of course that lead to a lot of imaginative thoughts throughout my life. I am just curious about my relatives in England. I have never met them except for the one time my mother’s aunt and uncle came to the US. I was a child and do remember meeting them. I was probably six or seven. They were named Ted and Hilda. I know that my mother lived through World War II in London, England, and my grandmother sent her to live with her grandmother in the countryside in Birmingham, England. I know her dad remarried and mother had a half brother and sister. I think she did meet them once on a trip she took in her later years. Basically, this is all I know.

Once here in the states, mother worked as a teller at a bank. She met my dad through a friend at the bank who set her up on a blind date. My dad was friends with the friend’s husband. Dad was honorably discharged from the Navy and they moved home to the family farm. I was born the winter after they moved home. I remember getting some letters on the blue “air mail” stationery from Hilda a couple of times. Receiving “air mail” was a big deal back in the day. I remember asking my grandmother and my mother both about why they chose to come to the US. Neither answered, only giving me a detailed account of traveling across the ocean on the Queen Elizabeth. I guess I didn’t press on after that, but would ask again at other times only to get the same answer.

Mother passed away in 2019, and took that information with her. Ancestry.com doesn’t provide much information either, as my sister and daughter have looked. I guess I will never know for sure, and it will remain one of my life’s great mysteries.

Later…