Gene C. Cahill

February 8, 2014

When were you born?

May 20, 1925. Calvin Coolidge was president. I was born in Astoria, Long Island, New York and my mom had two sisters. Her older sister was Aunt Kitty and the next one was Aunt Lala. She used to put me in a carriage to go visit her sisters and we would pass by the fruit man. He would stop us and give me a fruit to gnaw on. I was going on a year. In that time, when I was about a year and a half, my parents took Aunt Lala’s invitation to go into business with her husband. My dad was going to learn carpentry and all that you need to know for building. We would move up the Hudson River into the new wilderness. Aunt Lala and Uncle Eugene moved up there with their baby.

I was named after Gene Stratton Porter. She wrote beautiful books. My mom, Nana, liked her books. Ms. Porter called herself Gene because she couldn’t get published because she was a woman. I have her books and they are neat. When I was growing up, I used to feel worthless and wondered what was the matter with me. I went on a little journey. I was writing stories about death and how I was connected to death and some stories where I met an angel. I was wondering why I felt like I could write this stuff and draw these pictures but I felt ugh. I just didn’t fit in anywhere. Here is the thing, I was under the care of Aunt Lala because mom and dad were building the house. I was sitting in a little chair and they had friends over and their son Floyd was over. I fell in the hole where the stairs were going to be. He was teasing me. Aunt Lala was deaf. When I was little, just learning to talk, I had nobody to answer me because she didn’t hear me. She never had real talking with me. But I was taken with her on all of her calls. She was one of the first women ministers in the Nazarene church. I would go with her when she made calls to her parishioners. She didn’t talk, she read lips. I realized, “I am not a nothing. I just didn’t have anybody to talk to.” I was sort of shy and pulled back.

What is your earliest memory?

I remember stories my parents used to tell. I think I just remember everything from the pictures they took. You don’t really remember standing on top of Mount Beacon and having the wind blow your hair but I have the picture. I vaguely remember going to a place that served food. A sharp memory was of the cog wheel train. It was called the eighth wonder. Mount Beacon was across the river from Newburgh where Washington had his headquarters during the Revolutionary War. They would light a fire on the mountain to warn him if they saw any boats coming up the river.

Who raised you?

Aunt Lala was my day-time care taker of me. Mom and dad had to raise a daughter and buy material for their house they were building so they had to get a job. My mom got a job as a bookkeeper. She eventually worked for the bus company when I was going to school. My brother, Uncle Claude, was about three years old when they finally came out with running a bus to our house out near the Nazarene campgrounds. Some people had cottages out there. We had a wonderful childhood. The campground was our play place. There was a stage there where we would practice tap dancing. Bernice was our neighbor and we became fast friends. My folks’ good friends were the Kormondy's (Anthony & Francis) who ran a grocery store. They would come to deliver and Paul and Edward their sons would come with them.

Who were your siblings?

Aunt Evie (Evelyn) was my younger sister. I am the oldest. Uncle Claude was my younger brother. To carry on the name, he became Claude Milton Severance 3rd. He got married and they had boys but they didn’t carry the name on. I was the one that they put in charge when the folks had to go out. I remember one time when the kids were being naughty. I said, “Don’t do that.” Uncle Claude threw a stool at me and started marching around the house with Evie chanting, “Dictator, dictator…” When you went in the hall of the house there was an arch that connected to the living room but made it look like a separate, nice entrance. The stairs to the upstairs were right there to the right of the arch. We used to play games right there on the floor. We were playing Monopoly one night and a storm came. There was a lightning bolt that hit the glass and came in and bounced off the floor. We were wowed. We got away from the window. They, my siblings, were typical younger kids. I was naughty one day. I don’t know what I did, but my Nana was there (my mom’s mom). She was watching us. I must have done something and she said, “No, we will not have any more of that. You are going in the cellar until you behave yourself.” The house was built on the side of a hill and a door opened into the hill for a storage room in the hill. It was sort of a scary place. I was put in there and I got so filled with fright, I started screaming, “Let me out!” and kicking at the door. I did that so much that the safety on the door popped out and the door just opened. I came to and I was standing there and realized I was really gonna get it. Somebody came and said, “Alright, I guess you won’t do that anymore.” I was so frightened because it was just me in the dark cellar crying and banging to get out.

Did you ever go to college?

We were the girls. There wasn’t money. The only way there was money for Claude was when Nana worked for a bus company. They would pull into our street, sit for a certain time and then pull out and drive back to Beacon. One time, the bus came, and we weren’t watching Claude too carefully. The bus started backing up and didn’t realize Claude was there and it bumped him and knocked him down. It was a God thing. He wasn’t mortally hurt but he was hurt and so there was money that came to him from that. He got the money and he went to college on it. I had always wanted to go but there wasn’t any money and then World War II broke out and the boys were enlisting. They, enlisters, came around to the schools, like Rosie the Riveter. The FBI wanted people to come to Washington D.C. to work. They wanted people to look at fingerprints. I thought this was a way I could help the war effort. Papa got on the train with me and we went to D.C. He helped me go through the stuff: the interview, getting an apartment. I got an apartment with a girl named Evelyn. I thought that was good, “I’ll have a ‘sis’ still living with me.” Our apartment was near Lincoln Park. We worked in the armory just down the street. She worked in the FBI with me but we weren’t in the same crew. The job was all about stats. Get as many done as quickly as possible. I am a square shooter. We had somebody who would take your name and make a computer printout with your name. It was a big square. I said, “Square shooter. That’s me.” Dad’s name was beautiful. I said, “Gee, he’s all artistic and beautiful; I’m just a square shooter. “ Our name fits our personality. I passed the Second World War working in Washington D.C. I joined the Presbyterian Church. My mom was a paid soloist and my dad was a paid choir director in the Dutch Reformed Church. My mom was a beautiful singer. When she was a little kid, she entered an amateur show and she sang and brought the house down and won the grand prize, $25. That was a big prize in those days. She had her brother take her to the show. When our Nana found out about it, she said “You’ve had your thing, now go back to singing in the choir for God.” My dad was a tenor and he was in the Euterpe Glee Club and he and my mom sang together. Their theme song was “When I grow too old to sing…” That was their song. The song’s actual title is: When I Grow Too Old to Dream. Gammy’s Mom and Dad obviously changed the word ‘dream’ to the word ‘sing’ because they loved to sing together. At this point, Gammy quoted the lyrics to the song to me. They go like this:

“We have been gay, going our way

Life has been beautiful, we have been young

After you've gone, life will go on

Like an old song we have sung

When I grow too old to dream (sing)

I'll have you to remember

When I grow too old to dream (sing)

Your love will live in my heart

So, kiss me my sweet

And so let us part

And when I grow too old to dream (sing)

That kiss will live in my heart

And when I grow too old to dream (sing)

That kiss will live in my heart

So, kiss me my sweet

And so let us part

And when I grow too old to dream (sing)

That kiss will live in my heart]

Then, I’m in D.C., when I went to the little church, I met a women who owned a bed and breakfast. I went into her boarding house and lived with her. She boarded me and another girl. We slept in the same room in twin beds. Her daughter was my good friend and we always talked about when we got married, we would be each other’s bridesmaids. When she got married, there was a different girl staying there with me and I was close with the second girl. She would talk to me. She couldn’t see spending money on a bridesmaids dress. Somehow, I listened to her and it made an impact on me because we didn’t have any money. I chose not be her bridesmaid. I didn’t follow my heart. Who knows what would have happened. I wasn’t in her wedding and, at that time, when the war was over, the mother decided to give up boarders and I had to go to a different house that a lady had with another girl. It was all wrong and I decided not to keep my job and to go home. I was working in the Navy when this all happened. Before that I was working at the FBI. I’m so square and wanted to do things right that I wasn’t able to put my signature on and verify that this is what the fingerprint is. I was too slow. I had to do it and I had to do it right. My stats were too low so I was given a pink slip. The fellow who led the young people’s group at church was in the Navy and he said I should come over and interview for a job. The war was winding down and I needed another job. The Navy probably thought my job was ending (because the war was over), they didn’t know I got the pink slip. I went for an interview and I couldn’t lie so I told him. He knew I loved God and my heart was in the right place. He had faith in me and I got hired by that Navy department. I worked on a new system that they were going to put in for filing and keeping track of people. We won the prize, got awarded and taken to dinner. I earned the respect and I did it right. God worked things out so that I was still working in the Navy and I could stay there when the war was over. (This is when my friend got married and I refused to be her bridesmaid and was promptly kicked out of the boarding house and was living in a house that was all wrong). So now I had a decision to make, “What do I want to do?” I felt it was time to go home.

How did you meet Gampy (Richard Cahill)?

I met him way back before I went to Washington D.C. I met him in school, playing in the orchestra. He played trumpet and I played the viola. I would ask him for help with my trigonometry. He would help me. One time, I rushed in there because I had to get it done and I didn’t have it done. Doris was working with him and I pushed her aside to get it done and he let me do it so I would have it done on time. Finally, near the end of the term when we got our grades, the prom was coming up. It was a ballroom dancing prom in Upstate New York. I told everyone to get him to ask me to the prom. Two young kids talked to him and got him to ask me to the prom. He walked me home from school one day and asked me. He told me he didn’t know how to dance and I taught him before the prom. It was interesting, if I had stayed in D.C. and hadn’t gotten in that awful rooming house, that is what got me to go home, and I wouldn’t have been there if I had decided to be a bridesmaid. When I got home from Washington D.C. I met Gampy again. When he was discharged from the Navy, Gampy walked into Grants Store and my heart went all mushy. I was working there and invited him to go on a picnic with the rest of us. He came. He was following me around like a little puppy. He wasn’t picking up the conversation and I was annoyed. I thought, “Ugh. Get off me.” We used to go out to the skating rink way out in the northwest. We had to take the trolley out there. Some guys you know are not good and you wouldn’t even think about it. Your body is the temple of the Lord and you wouldn’t desecrate it. Gampy was a good guy.

When did you and Gampy get married?

We got married on the Fourth of July weekend because that’s when everyone could come, sixty five years ago. My mom made my wedding dress and the bridesmaid’s dresses. They all came and got dressed at the big house. My mom fixed everybody’s hair. I always combed my mom’s hair and fixed it. We were twenty minutes late to the wedding because I wouldn’t go without fixing my mom’s hair. We ought to have a celebration every year it goes on, because how many people stay married? Gampy’s big sister, Pat and Al got married on the fourth of July too five years before us and his little sister got married five years after us.

When Gammy was pregnant with Aunt Pam?

We went off to college after getting married. Gampy had gone to a Jr. College set up by the military and once, they held a dance. My mom made me a beautiful dress of taffeta that I could wear up there. When I got there at the house where he boarded, I teased him about a girl that was there. She wasn’t quite ready so I helped her get fixed up to come too. I made a rustling noise wherever I walked. It was a small checkered material. Very beautiful. Gampy spent two years in that college and then switched over to RPI. He spent his third and fourth years there. We were married, so we got in an apartment in an old barracks building. There were 2-4 apartments in one barracks building. We had Pam the first year we were in those barracks. We had her in the summer. She was born in Beacon and we would go in October to RPI. We were married July 4th, then went to RPI, then had her and then went back for the second term. I have pictures of her with us at the big house. They made an apartment for us that we lived in after graduation. Pam was born in Beacon Hospital. All day I had labor and about 9pm we went to the hospital. We were going up in the elevator and I had to push. They put me on the table and said, “There’s the head!” and boom, boom, boom and she was delivered. In those days, they gave you ether. I hadn’t had anything up to that point. The baby was out at that point and they gave me ether to put me to sleep so they could do what they do and I remember them saying “It’s a girl! (Echo, ‘It’s a girl!’)…Look at the hair! (Echo, ‘Look at the hair!’)” I remember waking up and I’m in a bed and it’s dark and I remember thinking, “Where am I?” A nurse came in and I asked her if I had had my baby. The nurse said yes and asked if I had seen her yet. I said no and she brought me Pam and I saw my little baby.

We went to RPI that October and we spent that time and I got pregnant again. Gampy did something one time and I was in bad shape and I threw a pillow at him and broke a glass. We came home for the summer and I noticed brown spots on the ground. I had a miscarriage. We went to the hospital and I got sick and I threw up hard enough that everything came out. I felt like I had failed and was so dejected but I got through that and that passed and then we had Jeff. Jeff was our guru man. We called him our Univac. He knew everything. Just ask him a question and he would tell you the answer. Then later I had Jim after we bought our house in New Jersey. When Greg was born, they (the kids) were all sitting on the couch and they knew we were coming. Gampy held the door for me and we put Greg into all their arms. Then I got pregnant with Alison. We had her and she was just a little baby when Gampy got transferred to Silver Spring, Maryland. Alison was a baby and we had to bring her with us to look for a house. We went to a hotel and we were on the 5th floor and I got seasick holding her. It was crazy. We would be out and then I had to sit in the car with a blanket to feed her and then we moved when she was 5 months old.

How did you come to move to Texas?

When we moved to Texas, Pam had her cats and our dog. It was like a safari trip. Us in our car and them in their car with all the animals. Then the big moving van. We sort of had this safari trip moving down to Texas. We have always lived in our house in Colleyville. The city was still being developed. We went and got my folks and they came down for their first visit. We were taking them to our house in Texas and there was a huge storm. We said, “Welcome to Texas.” They knew Maryland but they didn’t know Texas. They were greeted with a storm.

When did you retire?

I was a stay-at-home mom and when we were in Silver Spring, Maryland we were next door to a neighbor and she asked why I didn’t teach art. That’s when I finally said okay and opened Gene’s Art Cellar. Down in our cellar was our ping pong table and I had people standing around it doing their art work. It worked pretty good. I started that and I taught young kids and women. I gave classes. I had sold some of my works. When I moved to Texas, we no longer had a cellar and I said, “I need to get a studio.” There was no place for me to work in our Texas home so I said I would work at a college, Tarrant County Jr. College. I went there and signed up for art classes because they had a studio and I could go there to paint. We were at a little church, Pleasant Run. They had a history class and I decided to take some of these courses. I always wanted to go to college so I decided to take these courses. I found a “How it started” class and I wrote the beginnings of how the church started. I sent it in to Austin and got a good grade on that project. I began working not only on my art but also on my English. English became my minor. Art was my major and English was my minor. I worked two years and graduated with highest honors. I was a grandmother at this point. I went to my grandkids party rather than my graduation. Then I went to the University of North Texas. I studied art there. I earned my bachelor of fine art. At that graduation, Pam brought Heather and Tiffany and they cheered for me at my graduation from the bleachers.

When did you start teaching classes?

When they opened the program there at Tarrant County College. I offered to teach water color and creative writing. I am still working there now. It is a senior program. It has really gotten a claim that it is the best senior program in the country. They are learning from other seniors that are now teaching. Some of my students are now teaching. I’ve been teaching for 19 years.

What do you do aside from teaching?

I also teach, working at a senior retirement home. I do water color with them and get paid. I never do the dishes. Gampy took over on that.

What would you say to your grandchildren and great grandchildren as a legacy?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and never not keep going on. Go on with the Lord as long as you can and He will open a way for you to travel. Just keep on keeping on because His way is perfect for you. He knows where to lead you. What you think is that something turned out rotten but it will turn out for good.

When did you get saved?

I know we came from the north where it snowed, where we had drifts sometimes that were big enough to make igloos. That was when we lived in New Jersey. It is not the same as when we lived in Texas. You wouldn’t ask this question to someone from the north. They might not understand; so you ask them when they started walking with Jesus. I think there wasn’t a time when I didn’t walk with him. I relied on the Lord from the earliest time I can remember. We had great love in our family always. My folks loved me. When I brought Gampy home to be my beloved, my dad mentored him. He showed him sales techniques and that you look always for the best and you emphasize that. Way back when Gampy came back to the picnic, and he was a puppy dog, my mother said, I was being mean and that was no way to treat a nice boy like that. I thought he would call but he didn’t. I called my sister to tell him that I wanted to meet with him. We walked up to my house across the creek and to the ice cream parlor and from that point we were going together. This walking and talking was when we sealed it that we were going together. Because I didn’t ever have anyone to talk to, the only one I talked to was God. Now He comes and He wraps His arms around us and takes us through hard places. He holds us and keeps us and guides us. We just let Him do it because we need Him now more than ever. Once when I was growing up and we had snow and I was feeling sorry for myself. I felt like a wretch and that nobody liked me. I had my sled and I walked to the top of the hill. All of a sudden a boy came. This was an angel boy and he was blondish and ruddy and God sent him. He came out of nowhere. He walked down the road from the houses like he came from one of the houses, but nobody was there because it was winter time. He asked if he could take a ride down the hill with me. We started sledding together and just having fun. It was real nice. It began to get dark and then we had to go. He liked me and wanted to be with me. We talked and it was fun. He walked up around the curve and he was gone. Later, my sister and I tried to find out who he was but we never saw him again. We don’t know where he came from. He was my angel. He came to let me know I was okay. I’m crying because it is neat to know God picks you up and He’s there. He’s always there when you need Him. You don’t have to worry. When I came home from Washington D.C. after the war was over, just like when a guy comes back from the war and he’s seen so much and it is hard to handle everything, I felt the same way. I was on my own in Washington and working. We did do a good thing and got the filing system all set up. Just keep on keeping on and don’t think there’s an easy solution. Like for art or creative writing, you think it’s easy with steps to follow: a, b, c, etc. There are no directions. It just happens, it’s a God thing that is inside you and you let your inside out.

* * * * * * * * * *

Interview with Gene Carol Severance (Gammy) Cahill

February 8, 2014

When were you born?

May 20, 1925. Calvin Coolidge was president. I was born in Astoria, Long Island, New York and my mom had two sisters. Her older sister was Aunt Kitty and the next one was Aunt Lala. She used to put me in a carriage to go visit her sisters and we would pass by the fruit man. He would stop us and give me a fruit to gnaw on. I was going on a year. In that time, when I was about a year and a half, my parents took Aunt Lala’s invitation to go into business with her husband. My dad was going to learn carpentry and all that you need to know for building. We would move up the Hudson River into the new wilderness. Aunt Lala and Uncle Eugene moved up there with their baby.

I was named after Gene Stratton Porter. She wrote beautiful books. My mom, Nana, liked her books. Ms. Porter called herself Gene because she couldn’t get published because she was a woman. I have her books and they are neat. When I was growing up, I used to feel worthless and wondered what was the matter with me. I went on a little journey. I was writing stories about death and how I was connected to death and some stories where I met an angel. I was wondering why I felt like I could write this stuff and draw these pictures but I felt ugh. I just didn’t fit in anywhere. Here is the thing, I was under the care of Aunt Lala because mom and dad were building the house. I was sitting in a little chair and they had friends over and their son Floyd was over. I fell in the hole where the stairs were going to be. He was teasing me. Aunt Lala was deaf. When I was little, just learning to talk, I had nobody to answer me because she didn’t hear me. She never had real talking with me. But I was taken with her on all of her calls. She was one of the first women ministers in the Nazarene church. I would go with her when she made calls to her parishioners. She didn’t talk, she read lips. I realized, “I am not a nothing. I just didn’t have anybody to talk to.” I was sort of shy and pulled back.

What is your earliest memory?

I remember stories my parents used to tell. I think I just remember everything from the pictures they took. You don’t really remember standing on top of Mount Beacon and having the wind blow your hair but I have the picture. I vaguely remember going to a place that served food. A sharp memory was of the cog wheel train. It was called the eighth wonder. Mount Beacon was across the river from Newberg where Washington had his headquarters during the Revolutionary War. They would light a fire on the mountain to warn him if they saw any boats coming up the river.

Who raised you?

Aunt Lala was my day-time care taker of me. Mom and dad had to raise a daughter and buy material for their house they were building so they had to get a job. My mom got a job as a bookkeeper. She eventually worked for the bus company when I was going to school. My brother, Uncle Claude, was about three years old when they finally came out with running a bus to our house out near the Nazarene campgrounds. Some people had cottages out there. We had a wonderful childhood. The campground was our play place. There was a stage there where we would practice tap dancing. Bernice was our neighbor and we became fast friends. My folks’ good friends were the Carmandy’s who ran a grocery store. They would come to deliver and Paul and Edward their sons would come with them.

Who were your siblings?

Aunt Evie (Evelyn) was my younger sister. I am the oldest. Uncle Claude was my younger brother. To carry on the name, he became Claude Milton Severance 3rd. He got married and they had boys but they didn’t carry the name on. I was the one that they put in charge when the folks had to go out. I remember one time when the kids were being naughty. I said, “Don’t do that.” Uncle Claude threw a stool at me and started marching around the house with Evie chanting, “Dictator, dictator…” When you went in the hall of the house there was an arch that connected to the living room but made it look like a separate, nice entrance. The stairs to the upstairs were right there to the right of the arch. We used to play games right there on the floor. We were playing Monopoly one night and a storm came. There was a lightning bolt that hit the glass and came in and bounced off the floor. We were wowed. We got away from the window. They, my siblings, were typical younger kids. I was naughty one day. I don’t know what I did, but my Nana was there (my mom’s mom). She was watching us. I must have done something and she said, “No, we will not have any more of that. You are going in the cellar until you behave yourself.” The house was built on the side of a hill and a door opened into the hill for a storage room in the hill. It was sort of a scary place. I was put in there and I got so filled with fright, I started screaming, “Let me out!” and kicking at the door. I did that so much that the safety on the door popped out and the door just opened. I came to and I was standing there and realized I was really gonna get it. Somebody came and said, “Alright, I guess you won’t do that anymore.” I was so frightened because it was just me in the dark cellar crying and banging to get out.

Did you ever go to college?

We were the girls. There wasn’t money. The only way there was money for Claude was when Nana worked for a bus company. They would pull into our street, sit for a certain time and then pull out and drive back to Beacon. One time, the bus came, and we weren’t watching Claude too carefully. The bus started backing up and didn’t realize Claude was there and it bumped him and knocked him down. It was a God thing. He wasn’t mortally hurt but he was hurt and so there was money that came to him from that. He got the money and he went to college on it. I had always wanted to go but there wasn’t any money and then World War II broke out and the boys were enlisting. They, enlisters, came around to the schools, like Rosie the Riveter. The FBI wanted people to come to Washington D.C. to work. They wanted people to look at fingerprints. I thought this was a way I could help the war effort. Papa got on the train with me and we went to D.C. He helped me go through the stuff: the interview, getting an apartment. I got an apartment with a girl named Evelyn. I thought that was good, “I’ll have a ‘sis’ still living with me.” Our apartment was near Lincoln Park. We worked in the armory just down the street. She worked in the FBI with me but we weren’t in the same crew. The job was all about stats. Get as many done as quickly as possible. I am a square shooter. We had somebody who would take your name and make a computer printout with your name. It was a big square. I said, “Square shooter. That’s me.” Dad’s name was beautiful. I said, “Gee, he’s all artistic and beautiful; I’m just a square shooter. “ Our name fits our personality. I passed the Second World War working in Washington D.C. I joined the Presbyterian Church. My mom was a paid soloist and my dad was a paid choir director in the Dutch Reformed Church. My mom was a beautiful singer. When she was a little kid, she entered an amateur show and she sang and brought the house down and won the grand prize, $25. That was a big prize in those days. She had her brother take her to the show. When our Nana found out about it, she said “You’ve had your thing, now go back to singing in the choir for God.” My dad was a tenor and he was in the Euterpe Glee Club and he and my mom sang together. Their theme song was “When I grow too old to sing…” That was their song. The song’s actual title is: When I Grow Too Old to Dream. Gammy’s Mom and Dad obviously changed the word ‘dream’ to the word ‘sing’ because they loved to sing together. At this point, Gammy quoted the lyrics to the song to me. They go like this:

“We have been gay, going our way

Life has been beautiful, we have been young

After you've gone, life will go on

Like an old song we have sung

When I grow too old to dream (sing)

I'll have you to remember

When I grow too old to dream (sing)

Your love will live in my heart

So, kiss me my sweet

And so let us part

And when I grow too old to dream (sing)

That kiss will live in my heart

And when I grow too old to dream (sing)

That kiss will live in my heart

So, kiss me my sweet

And so let us part

And when I grow too old to dream (sing)

That kiss will live in my heart]

Then, I’m in D.C., when I went to the little church, I met a women who owned a bed and breakfast. I went into her boarding house and lived with her. She boarded me and another girl. We slept in the same room in twin beds. Her daughter was my good friend and we always talked about when we got married, we would be each other’s bridesmaids. When she got married, there was a different girl staying there with me and I was close with the second girl. She would talk to me. She couldn’t see spending money on a bridesmaids dress. Somehow, I listened to her and it made an impact on me because we didn’t have any money. I chose not be her bridesmaid. I didn’t follow my heart. Who knows what would have happened. I wasn’t in her wedding and, at that time, when the war was over, the mother decided to give up boarders and I had to go to a different house that a lady had with another girl. It was all wrong and I decided not to keep my job and to go home. I was working in the Navy when this all happened. Before that I was working at the FBI. I’m so square and wanted to do things right that I wasn’t able to put my signature on and verify that this is what the fingerprint is. I was too slow. I had to do it and I had to do it right. My stats were too low so I was given a pink slip. The fellow who led the young people’s group at church was in the Navy and he said I should come over and interview for a job. The war was winding down and I needed another job. The Navy probably thought my job was ending (because the war was over), they didn’t know I got the pink slip. I went for an interview and I couldn’t lie so I told him. He knew I loved God and my heart was in the right place. He had faith in me and I got hired by that Navy department. I worked on a new system that they were going to put in for filing and keeping track of people. We won the prize, got awarded and taken to dinner. I earned the respect and I did it right. God worked things out so that I was still working in the Navy and I could stay there when the war was over. (This is when my friend got married and I refused to be her bridesmaid and was promptly kicked out of the boarding house and was living in a house that was all wrong). So now I had a decision to make, “What do I want to do?” I felt it was time to go home.

How did you meet Gampy (Richard Cahill)?

I met him way back before I went to Washington D.C. I met him in school, playing in the orchestra. He played trumpet and I played the viola. I would ask him for help with my trigonometry. He would help me. One time, I rushed in there because I had to get it done and I didn’t have it done. Doris was working with him and I pushed her aside to get it done and he let me do it so I would have it done on time. Finally, near the end of the term when we got our grades, the prom was coming up. It was a ballroom dancing prom in Upstate New York. I told everyone to get him to ask me to the prom. Two young kids talked to him and got him to ask me to the prom. He walked me home from school one day and asked me. He told me he didn’t know how to dance and I taught him before the prom. It was interesting, if I had stayed in D.C. and hadn’t gotten in that awful rooming house, that is what got me to go home, and I wouldn’t have been there if I had decided to be a bridesmaid. When I got home from Washington D.C. I met Gampy again. When he was discharged from the Navy, Gampy walked in to Grants Store and my heart went all mushy. I was working there and invited him to go on a pick nick with the rest of us. He came. He was following me around like a little puppy. He wasn’t picking up the conversation and I was annoyed. I thought, “Ugh. Get off me.” We used to go out to the skating rink way out in the northwest. We had to take the trolley out there. Some guys you know are not good and you wouldn’t even think about it. Your body is the temple of the Lord and you wouldn’t desecrate it. Gampy was a good guy.

When did you and Gampy get married?

We got married on the Fourth of July weekend because that’s when everyone could come, sixty five years ago. My mom made my wedding dress and the bridesmaid’s dresses. They all came and got dressed at the big house. My mom fixed everybody’s hair. I always combed my mom’s hair and fixed it. We were twenty minutes late to the wedding because I wouldn’t go without fixing my mom’s hair. We ought to have a celebration every year it goes on, because how many people stay married? Gampy’s big sister, Pat and Al got married on the fourth of July too five years before us and his little sister got married five years after us.

When Gammy was pregnant with Aunt Pam?

We went off to college after getting married. Gampy had gone to a Jr. College set up by the military and once, they held a dance. My mom made me a beautiful dress of taffeta that I could wear up there. When I got there at the house where he boarded, I teased him about a girl that was there. She wasn’t quite ready so I helped her get fixed up to come too. I made a rustling noise wherever I walked. It was a small checkered material. Very beautiful. Gampy spent two years in that college and then switched over to RPI. He spent his third and fourth years there. We were married, so we got in an apartment in an old barracks building. There were 2-4 apartments in one barracks building. We had Pam the first year we were in those barracks. We had her in the summer. She was born in Beacon and we would go in October to RPI. We were married July 4th, then went to RPI, then had her and then went back for the second term. I have pictures of her with us at the big house. They made an apartment for us that we lived in after graduation. Pam was born in Beacon Hospital. All day I had labor and about 9pm we went to the hospital. We were going up in the elevator and I had to push. They put me on the table and said, “There’s the head!” and boom, boom, boom and she was delivered. In those days, they gave you ether. I hadn’t had anything up to that point. The baby was out at that point and they gave me ether to put me to sleep so they could do what they do and I remember them saying “It’s a girl! (Echo, ‘It’s a girl!’)…Look at the hair! (Echo, ‘Look at the hair!’)” I remember waking up and I’m in a bed and it’s dark and I remember thinking, “Where am I?” A nurse came in and I asked her if I had had my baby. The nurse said yes and asked if I had seen her yet. I said no and she brought me Pam and I saw my little baby.

We went to RPI that October and we spent that time and I got pregnant again. Gampy did something one time and I was in bad shape and I threw a pillow at him and broke a glass. We came home for the summer and I noticed brown spots on the ground. I had a miscarriage. We went to the hospital and I got sick and I threw up hard enough that everything came out. I felt like I had failed and was so dejected but I got through that and that passed and then we had Jeff. Jeff was our guru man. We called him our Univac. He knew everything. Just ask him a question and he would tell you the answer. Then later, I had Jim and that was still in Beacon. We bought our house in New Jersey. When Greg was born, they (the kids) were all sitting on the couch and they knew we were coming. Gampy held the door for me and we put Greg into all their arms. Then I got pregnant with Alison. We had her and she was just a little baby when Gampy got transferred to Silver Spring, Maryland. Alison was a baby and we had to bring her with us to look for a house. We went to a hotel and we were on the 5th floor and I got seasick holding her. It was crazy. We would be out and then I had to sit in the car with a blanket to feed her and then we moved when she was 5 months old.

How did you come to move to Texas?

When we moved to Texas, Alison had her cats and our dog. It was like a safari trip. Us in our car and them in their car with all the animals. Then the big moving van. We sort of had this safari trip moving down to Texas. We have always lived in our house in Colleyville. The city was still being developed. We went and got my folks and they came down for their first visit. We were taking them to our house in Texas and there was a huge storm. We said, “Welcome to Texas.” They knew Maryland but they didn’t know Texas. They were greeted with a storm.

When did you retire?

I was a stay-at-home mom and when we were in Silver Springs, Maryland we were next door to a neighbor and she asked why I didn’t teach art. That’s when I finally said okay and opened Gene’s Art Cellar. Down in our cellar was our ping pong table and I had people standing around it doing their art work. It worked pretty good. I started that and I taught young kids and women. I gave classes. I had sold some of my works. When I moved to Texas, we no longer had a cellar and I said, “I need to get a studio.” There was no place for me to work in our Texas home so I said I would work at a college, Tarrant County Jr. College. I went there and signed up for art classes because they had a studio and I could go there to paint. We were at a little church, Pleasant Run. They had a history class and I decided to take some of these courses. I always wanted to go to college so I decided to take these courses. I found a “How it started” class and I wrote the beginnings of how the church started. I sent it in to Austin and got a good grade on that project. I began working not only on my art but also on my English. English became my minor. Art was my major and English was my minor. I worked two years and graduated with highest honors. I was a grandmother at this point. I went to my grandkids party rather than my graduation. Then I went to the University of North Texas. I studied art there. I earned my bachelor of fine art. At that graduation, Pam brought Heather and Tiffany and they cheered for me at my graduation from the bleachers.

When did you start teaching classes?

When they opened the program there at Tarrant County College. I offered to teach water color and creative writing. I am still working there now. It is a senior program. It has really gotten a claim that it is the best senior program in the country. They are learning from other seniors that are now teaching. Some of my students are now teaching. I’ve been teaching for 19 years.

What do you do aside from teaching?

I also teach, working at a senior retirement home. I do water color with them and get paid. I never do the dishes. Gampy took over on that.

What would you say to your grandchildren and great grandchildren as a legacy?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and never not keep going on. Go on with the Lord as long as you can and He will open a way for you to travel. Just keep on keeping on because His way is perfect for you. He knows where to lead you. What you think is that something turned out rotten but it will turn out for good.

When did you get saved?

I know we came from the north where it snowed, where we had drifts sometimes that were big enough to make igloos. That was when we lived in New Jersey. It is not the same as when we lived in Texas. You wouldn’t ask this question to someone from the north. They might not understand; so you ask them when they started walking with Jesus. I think there wasn’t a time when I didn’t walk with him. I relied on the Lord from the earliest time I can remember. We had great love in our family always. My folks loved me. When I brought Gampy home to be my beloved, my dad mentored him. He showed him sales techniques and that you look always for the best and you emphasize that. Way back when Gampy came back to the pick nick, and he was a puppy dog, my mother said, I was being mean and that was no way to treat a nice boy like that. I thought he would call but he didn’t. I called my sister to tell him that I wanted to meet with him. We walked up to my house across the creek and to the ice cream parlor and from that point we were going together. This walking and talking was when we sealed it that we were going together. Because I didn’t ever have anyone to talk to, the only one I talked to was God. Now He comes and He wraps His arms around us and takes us through hard places. He holds us and keeps us and guides us. We just let Him do it because we need Him now more than ever. Once when I was growing up and we had snow and I was feeling sorry for myself. I felt like a wretch and that nobody liked me. I had my sled and I walked to the top of the hill. All of a sudden a boy came. This was an angel boy and he was blondish and ruddy and God sent him. He came out of nowhere. He walked down the road from the houses like he came from one of the houses, but nobody was there because it was winter time. He asked if he could take a ride down the hill with me. We started sledding together and just having fun. It was real nice. It began to get dark and then we had to go. He liked me and wanted to be with me. We talked and it was fun. He walked up around the curve and he was gone. Later, my sister and I tried to find out who he was but we never saw him again. We don’t know where he came from. He was my angel. He came to let me know I was okay. I’m crying because it is neat to know God picks you up and He’s there. He’s always there when you need Him. You don’t have to worry. When I came home from Washington D.C. after the war was over, just like when a guy comes back from the war and he’s seen so much and it is hard to handle everything, I felt the same way. I was on my own in Washington and working. We did do a good thing and got the filing system all set up. Just keep on keeping on and don’t think there’s an easy solution. Like for art or creative writing, you think it’s easy with steps to follow: a, b, c, etc. There are no directions. It just happens, it’s a God thing that is inside you and you let your inside out.