FLORENCE GLORIA GLESSOF #17 52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS

In January 2014, Amy Johnson Crow of the Ancestry blog No Story Too Small issued the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge.

 

 

 

The premise: write once a week about a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, a research problem — any that focuses on that one ancestor. The next week, write about a different ancestor. In 52 weeks, you’ll have taken a closer look at 52 people in your family tree… and maybe learned a little bit more about them in the process.

 

 

FLORENCE GLORIA GLESSOFF, my husbands Aunt, was born 17 January 1902 in Elizabethport, New Jersey.

 

Her parents were JOHN GLESSOFF and ALEXANDRIA CONCOVA.

 

I spent a lot of time with Aunt Florrie because she lived alone after her husband died in 1987 and needed help with shopping and cleaning.  She always felt bad that she needed this help so to divert her attention to what I was doing in the apartment I would ask all sorts of questions about her life.  One of my favorite questions to ask was “how did you meet your husband”.

 

Aunt Florrie explained to me that she worked in a Travel Agency where they secured tickets for customers for all their travel needs.  It was a small office and it could get slow at times so they would look at all the personal ads in the newspapers for fun. These ads were the forerunners of today’s Match.com. The ads would indicate a meeting place such as in front of the soda shop or at the park. The ad did not give any names but their likes and dislikes and request a reply to a Post Office Box so it was all anonymous.  The office workers would sit there and try to picture what would it be like.

 

Aunt Florrie was 26 and wasn’t married or even dating anyone.  At this time in 1928, many women got married when they were 18 and had several children by the time they were 26.  Her fellow workers dared her to put an ad the paper for a date.  She figured she had nothing to loose so she took the dare.

 

As she told to me, she was very scared that night when she finally agreed to meet someone.  She figured she would get there really early and check out the guy.  She did like the look of the guy and went out on the date.  Florence eventually did marry that guy.  They married March 16, 1929 and had 58 years of marriage before her husband died.

 

 

Aunt Florrie married FRANK BERNARD WIPF.  When I spoke to him about the personal ad in the newspaper, he said he did the very same thing Florrie did, he got there early and checked her out.  Apparently, he liked what he saw also. They were very good together and were a delight to have around.  They had a daughter, Florence (Honey), who married but didn’t have any children.  My children have very fond memories of Aunt Florrie and Uncle Frank because they were like another set of grandparents.

 

Aunt Florrie was excellent at crocheting and made Afghans for everyone.  My daughter still has many that Aunt Florrie made for her dolls.  Aunt Florrie lived in a senior housing apartment and was very involved with the club activities.  The club had trips to shows, dinners, and they played bingo and had card games.  Aunt Florrie requested never to be put in a Nursing Home, so she had 24 hour nursing care at home until her death, October 27, 2000, at the age of 98.