a 4th of July celebration

We celebrated with the usual--family, food, fireworks. Like true Texas rednecks, we celebrated by watching the fireworks from the backs of our pick-up trucks. (With 2 little babies, we didn't want the hassle of taking a shuttle bus to the park, so we joined many others in the HEB parking lot.)

My thoughts were on my mother, who was born in Vienna, Austria on July 4, 1918. From the time she was a little girl, she knew that someday she would live in America. In an official affidavit sent to the American Consulate, my father stated: "After serving 15 months in the service of the United States Army in Europe, I was honorably discharged as Staff-sergeant in the 869th Field Artillery Battalion. While in Europe, I became acquainted with Leopoldine Ibba (in Salzburg, Austria)...I became engaged to marry her; that she is now employed as a Secretary by the Headquarters Company of the 5th Infantry Real Estate Office; that she is 28 years old and both her parents are deceased....It is my intention to marry the said Leopoldine Ibba immediately after her arrival in the United Sates and that I will be responsible for her care and support thereafter in the United States; that my mother approves of said marriage (his father was deceased)."

After enduring many hardships during the war, a lifelong dream was fulfilled. She sailed on the ocean liner "America",entered New York Harbor, and was welcomed by the Statue of Liberty. The following week, my parents were married in Providence, R.I. and I made by entrance into the world exactly 9 months later.