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Special | 3m 6s | Video has closed captioning.
Marty Smith and her father, Paul Wilson, 93, discuss the first time he set eyes on her mother, Wilma. She was an elevator operator in the building where he was working, and he had just been drafted and was about to spend the next three years in the service. They married three days after he returned, and remained together and in love for the next 63 years before her death.
Aired: 01/23/23
♪♪ ♪♪ -One day I was waiting in the lobby for the elevator -- the door slid aside, and there she stood -- the prettiest girl I had ever seen.
She was the operator.
There were three or four other people on the elevator, and I was the last one on floor number ten.
And she opened the door, and I said, "Thank you" and she said, "You're welcome."
'Course, in the next few days, I saw her.
But I was so backward and bashful that I didn't say anything to her except..."Ten!"
-[ Laughs ] -She said, "Yes, I know."
Thank goodness she broke the ice.
She said... [ Laughing ] How 'bout that for an opening line?
I said "Sure."
"They serve chop suey."
-I sense that she set that up.
[ Laughs ] -I realized later she did.
When I said I eat there every day she said, "Oh?"
[ Both chuckle ] I realized I had an opening.
And we had chop suey, and we got acquainted.
I found out her name was Wilma.
She found out my name was Paul.
I found out that she was divorced and had a two-year-old girl.
She found out I was about to be drafted -- well, that wasn't good!
Well, you know what, I think it was two days later she brought that little girl downtown.
-This is Barbara.
-This was Barbara.
-She was my older sister.
-That's right.
Barbara was two years old; she had a little red snowsuit, white fur hat, white fur muff that she was proud of.
And when her mother introduced me to her, she held her arms out to me, and I was done for.
Well...
Your mother waited for me three years.
We got married right there in my mother's living room, and, uh... And as you often say to me when we part company, you say... And I have to think... yeah, life is good, even though [voice breaking] I've lost my sweetheart.
-Who was it that said, "The best thing a man can do for his children is to love their mother?"
-You did.
-We were real lovers.
And, uh, every day is a memorial for her.
♪♪ ♪♪
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