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Note: Emily was able to read, write and talk in fluent Polish. She was not an person to socialize in her married years with Louis Sadowski. Emily never learned to operate an automoble and in all her married life she and Louis never had a bank checking account. All bills were paid in person or by money orders. Emily earned extra money in the 1940-50s by doing ironing for her sister Virginia aka "Virgie." Emily went to work for Dr. Graham a dentist with office downtown near St. Mikes. She was the financial secretary for the PNA for 28 years. Emily aided All Saints Church in the late 1950s by helping with Altar Boys schedules. She smoked Red Pall Malls for a time when she was younger. Louie generally smoked Chesterfields. Kochany kuzynie, Detroit, August 29, 1970 The earler(1968) letter to your mom , that was the shorter one, was primarily a greeting and an invitation to write when she has any news of import. Am guessing here that this may have been a response to some earlier information from you mom to my mom. The second letter,August(not SEptember) 29,1970 is WOW! HERE IT IS:'" Dear niece Emily, Praised Be Jesus Christ.Dear Emily, I received the letter and bulletin from you, for which I thank you from the heart. I pray for your mother in church every day. Your mother did not have close relatives only a brother, Joseph Winogrodzki. Your mother was raised by her grandmother because her mother died young. But Bronislawa's father was Grandmother's stepson. Grandmodther was his second mother and they lived together. Bronia (Bronislawa) was little when we left. Your mother helped them some but she had her own children and your father was ill a long time so Mother could not support those in Poland.Now it is there as it is here. They have land to raise food and they now can work in factories. Their pay is less but things cost less there. We have many poor people here. Emily, when you are in Detroit do stop in to see me.Greetings to your husband and sons. Till we meet again, may God will. Wishing you well, Aunt Weronika" Bernie, it appears that your mom was also searching for her roots in her own way. Our efforts are most timely! Wdzieczna, kuzynka Helena EMILY This chapter is dedicated to my mother, Emily Helen Sadowski, nee URBANIK. Emily was born into the family of Paul and Eva Urbanik. Here are the vital statistics on her life: Date of Birth: May 21, 1911 Birthplace: Flint, Genesee County Mother's Birthplace: Poland Mother's Maiden Name: Eva Sielmowska Father's Name: Paul Urbanik Father's Birthplace: Poland Father's Age: 27 Mother's Age 23 Baptized: June 4, 1911 All Saints Church Sponsors: Francis Suchara & Helen Urbanik Married Louis F. Sadowski: November 24, 1938 Rev. Dr. S. Bortnowski, Pastor All Saints Church Witnesses: Stanley Sadowski & Apolonia Urbanik EMILY This chapter is dedicated to my mother, Emily Helen Sadowski, nee URBANIK. Emily was born into the family of Paul and Eva Urbanik. Here are the vital statistics on her life: Date of Birth: May 21, 1911 Birthplace: Flint, Genesee County Mother's Birthplace: Poland Mother's Maiden Name: Eva Sielmowska Father's Name: Paul Urbanik Father's Birthplace: Poland Father's Age: 27 Mother's Age 23 Baptized: June 4, 1911 All Saints Church Sponsors: Francis Suchara & Helen Urbanik Married Louis F. Sadowski: November 24, 1938 Rev. Dr. S. Bortnowski, Pastor All Saints Church Witnesses: Stanley Sadowski & Apolonia Urbanik General Comments about Emily Emily was a friend to many people . She corresponded with a wide variety of people. Any mail with a religious picture or message would get her attention and a donation. She kept the mementos in scrapbooks - 30 of them. The letters received from our relatives in Poland were saved and thank the Lord because those documents have proved invaluable on this Family Tree Project. An odd habit mom had when she washed the floors at home - she placed the Flint Journal newspapers on the floors ostensibly to keep them cleaner for a longer period. The rustle and messes under the kitchen table after two days would drive me goofy. Few people remember mom as a smoker. She loved the Pall Mall reds. Mom quit smoking in her thirtys. Dad smoked Chesterfields at that time, switching between Lucky Strikes or Camels later in life. He quit much later. Mom's health during my childhood seemed reasonably normal compared with others. At age 37 she had all of her teeth removed and from then on she wore dentures. She had her gall bladder removed surgically at St. Joseph's Hospital when she was 40 years old. About this time she was prescribed medication for a low thyroid activity. Blood pressure medications started in this time. After dad died in 1992, mom's health deterioarted. The most severe ailment was the amputation of her right leg and subsequent placement in Fostrian Manor in Feb. 1994. I have no recollection of mom being involved with politics, books, or any matter that required study. Mom read romance and detective magazines. Television was not brought into the home until the folks were married about ten years. I recall our first black and white TV because we were the first on the block to have one. Dad invited all his buddies to come over on Friday evenings to watch boxing matches. Mom made snacks and hung out in the kitchen. Employment of Emily Mom's working career began in her childhood as translator for Dr. Wanliss, a Flint dentist. Many Polish-speaking patients were patients of the dentist, including the Urbaniks. Mom would accompany her parents and translate - this led to her being hired and she stayed with the good dentist until she married dad. Mom then stayed home raising me and Robert until a calling came years later from Dr. Graham, a dentist-colleague of the aging Dr. Wanliss. Mom went back to work as a dental assistant for a dozen more years. Mom was elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Polish National Alliance (PNA) Lodge #.... She collected monthly insurance premiums from local members and once a month mailed the monies to the national office in Chicago, IL. This position she held for twenty-eight years. The PNA paid mom $10.00 per month for this exhausting parttime work. Mom took in laundry and ironing for a few friends during the 1950s. The ironing board seemed to be a permanent fixture in the dining room of the Carton Street home. She would send me on the deliveries carrying two arms full of shirts to the owner on the next block. Mom made five dollars per load. Mom never drove a car during her entire married life. Once , she tried to take lessons from an agency but dad told her to stop and she obeyed. Home Cusine as Bernard Remembers Cooking was shared in our home between mom and dad. For some reason we never had "tossed salads" at meals, only several individual bowls of the salad ingredients. My first real salad was had when I started to date Rita Blood at age eighteen. I was nineteen and in college as a sophomore before I ate a piece of pizza. The meals on Carton Street in the 1940s and 1950s were basic meat and potatoes. Mom could make the best pancakes and apple pies. Cooking a chicken was an event! Dad and I would walk the twenty or so blocks from Carton Street to Hockstead's Poultry Shop near Pierson Road on N. Saginaw Street. Dad would look over the live chickens and choose a small bantam roosters. The butcher grabbed the chicken's legs and quickly decapitate it. After the blood drained he would hold the dead carcass over a rotating machine which ripped off the feathers. The bird got wrapped and we carried it home where mom took over the balance of preparations. Mom first cut open the chicken to remove the innards. Then, she would light the stove's front burner and singe off the hairs of the chicken by careful rotating the chicken to make certain the entire bird was free of hairs or feathers. The smell was putrid of course. Then mom would place the chicken in a large pot of cold water to soak for several hours. The chicken was boiled. For years we ate boiled chicken and once in a while mom or dad would brown the pieces in a skillet. The innards were cooked separately and helped make he chicken broth. Shopping and Traveling Habits Shopping in department stores downtown Flint was interesting. Mom would look for nails, thumbtacks, paint, hammers while dad shopped for groceries. It was Emily who did the small chores around the home not Louie. When the 1939 Buick was bought in 1953, fifteen years after mom and dad married, then the routine changed. Lots of Sunday drives were taken around the county. Looking for vegetable stands and a good place like Harrimanns on Clio Road to buy ice cream cones. Whenever we traveled, mom would ask dad to stop anyplace to get something to eat. It would put dad into a state many times. Mom liked the car trips upnorth to Indian River and Alpena. We also went to the Straits when the "Big Mac " bridge was being constructed in the late 1950s. There is no doubt in my mind that had Robert and me remained in Flint as adults, the folks would have never traveled further than Detroit, Michigan. Mom and dad came to Elko, Nevada in the 1970s to visit us and they came by train to Seatle to see us where we presently reside. They also traveled to Texas, Florida, New York to visit with my brother and his wife.
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