Helen Orinick 1923-2010

My mother was the seventh child of Matthew and Anna.  I already posted a blog about her, so I won't repeat it now.  After my mom, there were a set of twins born who died.  I am not sure whether they were stillborn or died after birth, but as far as I know they did not live to a year old.  There was a story of Anna being kicked by a cow during a pregnancy, so this may be how the twins died.  However, Anna got pregnant again soon and Helen was born, 10th child, 8th living child, and 6th daughter.

I don't know if she had any other jobs before this, but Helen worked as a bookkeeper for Walter Kidde Company in Belleville, NJ for about 30 years.  She never married and I don't remember ever meeting any of her boyfriends.  I think she had at least one serious disappointment in men.  As long as I can remember, she shared an apartment with her younger sister Lillian.  When I was growing up they lived in Kearney, NJ.  Around the late 1950's, their brother Bill found an old revolutionary war era house that he wanted to buy.  He wanted to convert it to a 2 family home and rent the other half, but didn't have enough money to buy it on his own.  Helen and Lil put up part of the money for the house and they became joint owners.  Years later, when Bill wanted to move to Florida, Helen and Lil bought his share of the house as well.

Helen visited our house every Sunday we were home.  She would come for Sunday dinner and a card or board game afterwords.  Sometimes Lil would come with her, but I think Lil went to Pennsylvania more often. On weekends when we went to Pennsylvania to visit the family, she and Lil would often be there too.   I have many fond memories of time spent with my dear aunts.   Helen liked to discuss politics and current events and life in general.  She often engaged me in these conversations, even though I was only a young girl.  My mother would sometimes get upset with our "discussions"  because she thought we were arguing, but she didn't understand.   Helen was passionate in her opinions and tended to yell to make her point, but for some reason this never bothered me.   I never took it personally - it was just a debate.   Looking back, most of my mother's brother's and sisters tended to yell, except for my mother.  I don't know why Mom was different, but I understand that when you live in a house with your parents and 9 siblings, you probably learn that you need to yell to be heard.

Helen showed us in so many other ways that she loved us.  Although she never had children of her own, she always spent a lot of time with the children in the family.  When we were on the farm in Pennsylvania, and most of the adults were at the local tavern for the evening, Helen & Lil stayed with my cousins and me.  When my cousins had their children, Helen looked after them too.  She spent her life trying to help the children of the family, and gravitated towards the ones who needed her the most.

Helen and Lil moved to the Edison house after they retired.  They rented the 2 apartments in the main house and lived in the little cottage in the back, taking care of each other as always,  until about 2007.  By then they couldn't keep up the maintenance and both were suffering from the effects of age.  Lil went into a nursing home and Helen went to live with relatives in Pennsylvania.  She kept her mental capacities right to the end, and enjoyed rolling her wheelchair out to where she could see her nephew's grandchild playing outside.  Although she was stubborn and did not want to leave Edison, I think she was happy in her last years.  My beloved Aunt Helen died 12 days ago.  We went to Pennsylvania for the funeral and saw her laid to rest next to her sisters Mary and Margaret, at St Tikhon's Russian Orthodox Cemetery.

William "Andrew" Orinick 1917-1993

The 6th child of Mathew and Anna was a second boy.  We all knew him as Bill, but I am told his baptismal certificate said Andrew and the 1920 census lists him as Wasil.  Born in Simpson, PA, he was probably about 8 or 9 when the family moved to the farm in South Canaan and 18 when his father died.   In 1939 when Bill was 22, his mother died as well. His older brother Mike took over the farm for the first few years, but that wasn't the life Mike and Kate wanted.  When Mike married Kate the management of the farm went to Bill.  Around 1945, Bill married Hedy Hromada and she moved to the farm house with him. Their 2 daughters were born while they lived there.

Bill wasn't happy as a farmer any more than his brother was.  Around 1950 he and Hedy separated and they turned the farm over to Bill's youngest brother Ted, who had just gotten married.  Hedy and the girls went to live with Hedy's parents and Bill went to New Jersey to work at Otis Elevator with his broter Mike and several cousins.
I don't know much about Bill's life after that.  Somewhere along the line I picked up his occupation as a "Mechanical Engineer."  He occasionally went out with his 2 younger sisters to the bars to socialize and I have heard he was a lady's man.  Sometime around 1960 he found a revolutionary war era house for sale in Edison, NJ.  He and his 2 sisters bought the house.  They put up much of the down payment and he put in the work to restore it.  This was a large house with fireplaces in most of the rooms and a secret cellar where residents could hide from attackers.  Bill was a great story-teller.  I never knew when he was telling tales and when he was telling the truth, but I think this story was true. 

The house was restored to be a 2 family home.  He lived in one side and rented out the other half.  There was also a small cottage on the property in the back.  I remember the family who lived there was named Shoemaker, and I believe Bill let them stay there in exchange for Mr Shoemaker helping with the restorations and acting as a general caretaker.

Around 1975 Bill married a second time, to Betty McCarthy.  Shortly after they moved to Florida.  This marriage didn't last either.  They divorced on March 25, 1982 in Sarasota, FL.
Bill owned several properties in and around Nakomis, Florida.  The photo of Mike and Bill to the left was taken when I visited them in 1992.  He was living in a trailer park and this photo was taken just outside.  During this visit I was able to interview Mike, but Bill was not as willing to talk about the past.  His health was not good.  In his later years Bill spent time at the Eagles Club in Nokomis and developed a close friendship with Patty (Arminta) Kaminsky.  I remember hearing that they enjoyed dancing together.  She stayed with him until he died on July 12, 1993.

Michael Orinick 1915-1994

Matthew and Anna's 5th child was their first son.  Although we knew him as Mike and most of his documents say Michael, I was told that his baptismal certificate lists him as Stephen.  There are other errors in his documents as well, such as the Florida Death Index listing his birth date as 22 Oct instead of 2 Oct.  For all the children in this family there is a similar pattern of different birth and baptismal names and different birth dates.  I believe he was born on Oct 2nd and baptized on Oct 22nd.   As a boy he worked the farm with his father.  He married Catherine Carnie on Oct 15, 1938 and had a farm not far from his parent's farm.  Around 1940 they gave up farming and moved to New Jersey to work for Otis Elevator.  They lived at 96 Burnett St Newark, NJ in 1945.

From 1940 to 1945 he worked as a machinist for Otis Elevator Co. in Harrison, NJ.  According to what he told me in 1993, his job was to lay out blue prints, set up and operate turret and engine lathes, shapers, planer, milling machine, grinders and drill presses; to make jigs fixtures and parts for elevators and guns.  He also assembled parts used for machinist tools and measuring devices, working to tolerance of .0005 inches on grinders.   Since I am not a machinist, I probably have written some of this incorrectly, but this is from my notes at that visit.  Maybe someone reading this will straighten me out.

Mike received orders to Report for Induction into the Army on June 22, 1945, Order # 2665.  On July 6, 1945 he reported to the Sussex Avenue Armory, Sussex Ave & Jay St, Newark, NJ and enlisted.  He spent  1.5 months as PVT Basic 521, 5 months S Sgt Auto Mech 965 and 6 Monnths S Sgt Maint Sgt 413.   He received an honorable discharge December 27, 1946, as Staff Sergeant # 42 155 899, Headquarters Detachment 19th Ordinance Battalion, Fort Dix, NJ.   During his service he spent 8 months 12 days in continental service and 9 months 10 days in foreign service.   He received the Army of Occupation Medal & the World War II Victory Medal.

When I spoke to Mike in 1993, he told me that he was wounded by a mine in Germany, but I haven't found the record of his receiving a purple heart.  On Dec 6 1946 there is a record of his first disability benefits claim, 10% or more disabled.  Since this is 21 days prior to his discharge, I do believe the injury was sustained in WWII.  In 1948 Mike was in Kingsbridge Veterans Hospital, Bronx, NY for a spinal fusion. I saw records of complaints of back problems throughout the rest of his life.  

In 1993 he was a member of the Disabled American Vererans Sunshine City Chapter 09009L28690, the American Legion Legion FLO 8002-5340, the Vererans of Foreign Wars post 531 no 728238, and the Fraternal Order of Eagles No 4035

After his discharge and rehabilitation he and Kate went back to Honesdale, PA where he got into construction.   He built and sold several houses in the area.  Eventually, they moved to Rochester, NY and developed a construction business there. When they retired they moved to Florida, where they remained the rest of their lives. I remember Mike and Kate having a boisterous relationship,  with lots of yelling, yet they stayed together for 47 years.  They never had any children.   Kate died in 1985 and Mike married Genevive Seprish on Feb 14, 1987.   

Mike's relationship with Gen doesn't appear to have been much calmer than he had with Kate. They divorced on Feb 28, 1989 after 2 years of marriage, but continued to see each other.  They remarried on July 17, 1990 and divorced again sometime after I met her in 1993.  Around 1994 he went into the hospital for prostrate surgery.  They did the first operation, then rushed him in for a second operation at midnight the same night.  He recovered but lost much of his memory after that. Gen remarried him then while he was in the nursing home, took him home and took care of him until early 1994. His dementia continued to worsen however, until one day he drove off in his car and was found hours later, not knowing who he was, where he was or where he was going. He was placed in the hospital again and remained there until he died in June, 1994. Gen stuck by him, visiting daily until the end.

Margaret Orinick Bononus 1913-1992

The fourth daughter was Margaret.  I understand her birth certificate actually listed her as Anastasia, but we all knew her as Aunt Margie.  In 1930, she is listed in 2 census records - on the home farm on May 5 and as a servant in the house of John & Bessie Riskin in Passaic, NJ on April 8th.  Sometime between 1930 and 1938 she married Frank Bononus.  Frank got a job with Otis Elevator in Harrison, NJ during WWII and they moved to Newark, NJ.   They had 2 children, a boy and a girl.   Their son never married, but their daughter married and had 3 daughters.

Sometime in the 1950's Margie began suffering from the effects of Muscular Dystrophy.  I remember going with my mother to pick her up and bring her to the hospital for physical therapy weekly for several months when I was young.   I don't think the therapy helped much, because she continued to get worse over the years.  (On a side note, I remember Mom stopping in a Hostess bakery distributor on the way home to get day-old baked goods.  It was on rt 21 in Newark.)

When Frank retired, the three of them (Frank, Margie & son) moved to Heathville, Virginia.  Frank died there in 1987 and she passed away in 1992.  I don't know where he was buried, but Margie was brought home to Pennsylvania, to be buried in St Tikhons cemetery in South Canaan, PA, next to her sister Mary.

I remember Margie as a  sweet lady who suffered very much over her life.  She was kind to me and appreciated my talking to her.  I think she was starved for companionship and enjoyed our visits very much.  The last time I saw her was in 1990 on the way to my niece's wedding in Virginia.  My husband, Mom, Dad & I had just come from another  niece's wedding in the state of Washington.  Mom & Dad spent a week at our house in Maryland between the weddings.  We drove to the wedding with an afternoon stop in Heathville to visit.  Margie was very glad to see us, but I could hear the bitterness of the years in her voice.  She deserved a better life.  I pray she has peace and freedom from pain now.

Julia (Julianne) Orinick Reger (1911-1991)

Mathew and Anna's third daughter was Julia.  Although I saw her often enough growing up, I can't say I really knew her.  In the 1930 census, when she was 19, I found her working as a maid for the Sussman family in Passaic, NJ.  Sometimes after that she met and married John (Jack) Reger.  After loosing twins, they couldn't have any other children, so they adopted a daughter.  Jack was a construction worker and they lived in a number of places over the years.  I found addresses for them in my mother's address book in Ebensburg, Cambria County, PA and Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, PA.  I also know we visited them in Cleveland, Ohio when I was a little girl.  By the late 50's they had purchased a small farm in South Canaan, Wayne County, PA and that is the house I remember.  The house was up a small hill from Rt 296, with a U shaped driveway.   Julia raised chickens and sold the eggs while Jack continued to travel on construction jobs.  They also had maple trees and I remember going out with her to retrieve the sap to make maple syrup.
 
Julia was very active in St Tikhons Russian Orthodox Church.  She worked in the kitchen with other local women whenever an event such as a wedding or funeral occasioned a dinner in the church hall.

Jack died in a construction accident in the beginning of November, 1963 He was crushed by a Caterpillar that tipped while he was driving it, so the casket was closed.  That was the first funeral I ever attended.  I remember the family gathering at their house after the funeral, but not much else.  Julia continued to live in that house until after her daughter married the following year.   After she sold the farm house she rented a house between the Orinick farm and Waymart for a while.  Once when she fell and broke some bones, she stayed with my Mom and Dad for a while in their Prompton house.  I'm not sure exactly when that was or for how long, but I believe it would have been in the late 1970's. 

At some point she bought a trailer home and her brother Ted & sisters who had title to the farm gave her a 99 year lease on a small piece of property on the edge of the farm to put the trailer on.  She lived there until she died on Feb 21, 1991.  Both she and Jack are buried in St Tikhon's cemetery.  Their graves are on the same side of the road as the church, not too far from the corner.