So on we go. Now Al is working in a new company called National Research Corporation in Cambridge, Mass. This company researched new products, methods of cryogenics, although he never called it that, but they developed one if not the first of the frozen orange juices and freeze dried coffees, among lots of other things. In the early years, they did research on developing harder metals and solid fuels, their contribution to the space age, yet to come. During this early period he went to MIT for a period of time. I'm not sure what he studied, but remember him studying late into the night after dinner. Al made a number of lifetime friends at NRC. Some of them attended his funeral some fifty or sixty years later, and people that I will always remember with love because they loved him so. Hank and Joan Rajchel, crazy Leo Dermady and Paul Smith, to name a few. I remember someone named Red, but I was young and don't recall Red's last name. Red died long before Al, but was always remembered. If anyone reads this bio and wants to write or add to the adventures of these guys, feel free to send me an email and I'll tell you how to post your memories. Like the night Al, Leo, and either Hank or Paul, lifted a few pints of beer after work, and decided to befriend a homeless man who was sleeping in a doorway. What ensued must have been hilarious, because they shoved this poor guy into their car, scaring him to death, and then spent the night trying to get this guy a hotel room. The drunk was sure they had something deranged in mind for him, and they only wanted to get him in out of the cold. At some point in the quest for a room, (none of the hotels would let the derelict have a room, and these guys were determined, fueled by alcohol also, to find one for him) someone thought someone had a gun, and it just got crazier. Leo or Hank, one of you guys needs to tell this story. And Crazy Leo, the actor of the group, had no qualms about posing as a Secret Service man (or a cop, or the gas man, or the electric company rep) to get access to places he (they) shouldn't have been. I had the privilege of meeting and knowing these guys when I was old enough to drive, and would stop in to visit Al at NRC if he was working and I was in Boston. As a group they worked and played together, and I am glad for knowing them.
In the fifties, now we children are all teenagers. Now we have television, cars, telephones, and life is quite different. We still live in Scituate, Al still has that mortgage, all of us, and his growing depression that never was addressed. He continues to work at NRC, now called something else, but eventually owned by the German company that owns Bayer, yes the aspirin folks. As the growing successful research company changes hands, they don't do well financially for the people who developed it and stayed for years. Including Bayer.
Eventually Al and Evie agree to separate, but not divorce. I have always believed that the burdens they both carried and lack of support from any direction emotional, physical, and financial, forced their relationship down. Al moves to Boston and we all stay in Scituate. He comes home sometimes for a weekend if he's not working, and some weekends Evie goes up to Boston to see him and to shop in the big outdoor market. Eventually we older girls marry start our own families and kind of drift away but not so far away that we don't keep in touch.
Evie elects to sell the house, which has become too much of a burden for her. Kathrine and Evie's sisters Rita and Margaret are now living in sunny California and she decides that this would be a good move for her. Al agrees, and the house is sold. The end of that era. Although they keep in touch by letters and phone calls, Al never does go to California, either to live or to visit. Evie does come back for weddings, and when third daughter Diane is diagnosed with breast cancer she comes to stay and spend some time. She breathes a sigh of relief when Diane is pronounced cancer free after 5 years. However, a couple of years later, Diane is once again diagnosed and though she struggled through the treatments, loses her fight to Cancer. Another horrible dark time within our family.
