I am my own Grandpa......The house with so many memories!

Our family home was a modest home located off of Edgewater Drive in Orlando. We lived on a dirt road where houses were far apart, as most of us had rather large yards. Most of the families had lived there for quite some time and everyone knew who everyone was. Back then, the neighbors watched out for each other’s children and if you did anything wrong, your parents heard about it.

My best friend, Faye, lived halfway down the road and we would spend our afternoons walking to and from each other’s house. The Freelove's were a large family and they treated me as one of their own, the same way that my family treated her as one of their own. Her family was Jehovah Witness, so she celebrated holidays with us as she loved the gatherings that we had. My mother would bake her birthday cakes and she loved that because they did not celebrate birthdays at her house. It has been over 40 years and we still keep in touch. We have shared both pain and happiness over the years.

Another family that we grew up with was the Robertson’s. Their backyard was located on our street, as they owned and operated a dry cleaning plant located on Edgewater Drive called Connie’s Cleaners. The father, Connie, built the building and made it so the family could live upstairs. He and his wife, Marie, operated the cleaner’s during the day and lived upstairs after the workday was over. My sister, Brenda, married into their family when she married David. They were high school sweethearts and after finding out that she was pregnant, they were told that they needed to “do the right thing” and get married. Because they were under age, we drove to Georgia to a Justice of the Peace.

My mother, father and my brother, Ronnie and I accompanied them. I was little and did not realize that it was not your “normal” wedding. It seemed happy to me, after all, they had been dating and I liked David a lot. It made them grow up fast…… They rented a small place and David took a job so that he could raise his family. Before long, Cynthia Marie Robertson arrived into this world. And even though she was not a “planned” baby, she was the light of all our lives. After all, she was the first grandchild for my family.
My mother had become friends with Marie Robertson, and our family kind of meshed with theirs. I did not know it at the time, but Marie was an abused woman as well. So, her and my mother had a lot in common. Their youngest daughter, Shirley was my age and we became very good playmates. Shirley and I went to the first year of school together before her mother passed away and the Robertson family sold the dry cleaners and moved to New Smyrna. We still kept in touch and saw each other on weekends, summers and during the holidays. Gary, their other son, was a senior in high school. Because he wanted to graduate with his class, he moved in with David and Brenda. On the weekends he would go to New Smyrna. As a matter of fact, we all spent a lot of weekends there because the house was on Spruce Creek and we like to go fishing.


My other sister, Linda finished school, but, she too ended up getting pregnant. Times were a little better for my family then and she was given a small wedding and reception.
I was so excited at her wedding. She was marrying Eddie McDowell. While they were dating, I always thought that he was so cool. He drove a purple 57 Chevy and was always fun to be with as he was a big kid himself. As it turned out, both my sister and my mother were pregnant at the same time and both delivered baby boys just four days apart. My sister had Greg and mama had Glen.

Both of my sisters marriages lasted for over 16 years and each of them had 1 more baby before their divorces. Brenda had another girl, Connie and Linda had another boy, Shannon.

As for me, I ended up dating, Gary Robertson. I, too, ended up pregnant, but decided not to get married right away because I wanted to finish school. Thank God, my mother and step father agreed to let me have the baby and live with them while attending school. Looking back on it, it is funny, because growing up with him; I never dreamt that I would end up being his wife. After all, he was 10 years older than me.

My mother once told me that she thought Gary liked me because one time we were all at a Halloween party given by my sister. I went to the party as someone else's date. Gary was there solo and my mother said that she saw the way Gary kept looking at me. She knew before either he or I knew. I told her that she was crazy and besides he already had a girlfriend. In fact, they later became engaged and I often would ride with them to New Smyrna. And don’t forget, at that time, his brother was married to my sister. As it turned out, Alice and Gary broke off the engagement and he dated a few more women, before coming to his senses where he finally realized that I was the girl for him. I still remember the night that he called me for our first date. He said that he had just got back into town and was going out to get something to eat and wondered if I would like to go with him. I told him that I had already eaten. I thought that my mother was going to punch me! When I got off the phone, she said that I could have at least gone and gotten dessert. Playing hard to get must have gotten to him because the next day, he called to see if I wanted to go to the movies…. And that my friend is how it began.

Now 32 years later, we are still married and have 2 great boys, Michael and Mitch and 2 beautiful daughters in laws, Joanne and Amy and 3 wonderful grandchildren, Mason, Rylee and Haylee. The funny thing was, my mother loved Gary while we were dating, but, the minute we announced that we were getting married, she did not like him anymore. I really think that it was because she was not only losing me, she was losing Michael as well! You see, when I was pregnant with Michael, my mother was also pregnant. She ended up losing that baby as she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. For that reason, when he was born he really was "our" baby. Thankfully, although Gary and my mother didn't love one another, they put up with each other for my sake. Crazy, how things work out!


So, in my defense about being my own grandpa…… even though I grew up with him and his brother was married to my sister; there is no blood relation between us. But, think about the blood line of our children, could their blood match? Hmm… it is something to think about.