She left a beautiful memory

Another excerpt from Aunt Rose Jozwicki's journal:

Six months later I lost my dear mother on May 20 1942 (your great grandmother Catherine Contenta Messa).  She left a beautiful memory.  But a loss that I will never forget.  I was miserable and unhappy for a whole year.  I had fear of being left alone in my own home.  I was almost over the pain of mother's death when my brother Louie got a heart disease which was incurable.  It was an infection of the heart valve.  It was called subacute bacterial endocarditis.  The doctor gave him six months to live.  In six months almost to the day, he was gone.  We cried for him so much during those awful months.  By the end of his death he was all but skin and bones.  

He was only 31 years old and had everything to live for.  A good home, a big car, and a good salary.  I was there when the end came July 24 1943.  For many a sleepless hour I have spent since his death thinking of him and those big eyes; the way he looked at mea, as if he wanted help, but we could not do a thing.  His wife did everything in the world that she sould have done for him.  Sulfa drugs and other treatments had failed.  

Tom Lessie and Louis Messa (not sure which is which but I like to think that Louis is on the right with the snappy fedora style hat)

The war was still on, and everyone was very discouraged, most of all the boys of our neighborhood who were gone to fight for their country.

My husband (Walter)  was lucky.  By now he was 37 years old, so they were taking men up to 38.  By the time he was called to the draft board, and his job was essential.  He just missed being called.  We at the home front did everything in our power to help win this terrible dreadful way, by buying war bonds, saving paper, fat tin cans, and by working hard.

In the meantime, my brother Pete was keeping steady company with a firl named Sally Restivo (she was a graduate nurse).  Pete was not in service for he was a diabetic.

On September 19 1943, Pete was married at Saint Rita's church and had a little recption in Sally's mother's house.

 I thought you might enjoy seeing these familiar family names even if some of the history is rather sad.  But these are beautiful memories regardless.