DW (born 1928):
Selma Constance Hamilton1st husband (born 1926: married 1955-1963):
Rudy Frederick Ward
DD (born 1958):
Kathy Sophia Ward-DH (born 1959: married 1993-present):
Mickey Kyle Verity--DD1 (born 1996):
Shayla Jean Verity--DD2 (born 1999):
Kirsten Maya Verity
2nd husband to DW(born 1910: married 1966-1972):
Wiley Lloyd Collins
3rd husband to DW (born 1930: married 1978-1982):
Manuel Victor Santiago
4th husband to DW (born 1932: married 1989-2001):
Alon Samuel Morgenstern
5th husband to DW (born 1943: married 2003-present):
Ernie Theodore Morgan
Selma Hamilton, who insisted on pronouncing her first name
Zelma, was married five times. She was born in 1928, the second eldest of eleven children born to a Scottish-born bricklayer and his
German American wife. Growing up in the Bronx,
Selma spent most of her childhood helping her mother and older sister take care of her nine younger siblings. She knew three thing that she didn't want to marry a man like her father, who returned home 12 hour shifts exhausted and taciturn, or to become a woman like her mother, always pregnant, nursing, and taking care of a gabble of children. And that she wanted to get out of the city, with its suffocating fumes.
She finished high school soon after the war ended, with mediocre grades. College was out of the question. She became a secretary - a job that paid a living wage, but not one she enjoyed in the slightest. It was a better job than any of her siblings had, and
Selma saved every penny she could, living in a tiny flat and subsiding on
Campbell soups, for one very simple purpose - the mountains. She took her ten days of paid time off at the exact same time each year, and went climbing in the mountains - any mountains, from the Rockies to the Appalachians.
On one such trip, when she was 27, and, in the eyes of her parents, who married at 18, sure to die an old maid, she met
Rudy Ward. An engineering student with a passion for mountaineering,
Rudy was three years her junior, handsome and boyish, and, like
Selma, born to a
German American mother.
Selma didn't go back to work after her paid time off was over, and didn't mind the least bit when she received her notice. Now, she had
Rudy.
Selma and
Rudy didn't intend to have children - their own companionship was more than enough for them. But when
Selma discovered she was pregnant three years into their marriage,
Rudy was so delighted that her apprehension melted.
But their bliss didn't last long. When
Kathy was eight, her mother left her husband for
Wiley Collins - 18 years
Selma's senior, he owned an enormously profitable ranch in Texas. And so,
Selma divorced her husband and left the town she had learnt to call home and her daughter to become a rancher's wife.
The marriage lasted 6 years before
Selma filed for divorce - and got a very handsome settlement, which she used to travel the world. In Puerto
Rico, she met
Manuel Santiago, who owned a used car dealership. That marriage lasted only four years, and when she divorced
Manuel,
Selma did something she never thought she'd do - moved back to New
York.
In New
York, she met
Alon Morgenstern.
Alon was born in Germany to Jewish parents who fled to the US when their son was 7.
Alon reminded
Selma of her first husband - like
Rudy,
Alon was an engineer, and like
Rudy, she divorced him.
Two years after this last divorce,
Selma met and married
Ernie. 15 years her junior,
Ernie was an orthodontist who wasn't expecting to become anyone's husband anytime soon - especially not anyone's fifth husband. And yet, they'll be celebrating their twentieth anniversary in a few months time.
While
Selma saw
Kathy a few times a year, her daughter lived with
Rudy. She was clever and studious eventually becoming an engineer like her father. Her high school partnered with one in the UK, and paired each American student with a British pen pal.
Kathy was delighted - she found the notion very romantic, and she was curious about the world. Her parents had moved into
Rudy's native town, but she dreamt of moving to a huge city - the very thing her mother couldn't stand. So she was thrilled to correspond with a boy from
London, who was only a few younger older than her.
While most students exchanged a letter every month or so,
Kathy doted on each letter from
Mickey Verity.
Even after the two graduated high school, they swore to continue their correspondence. But both started university, and then got jobs, and all but forgot about the chaste epistolary romance of their teenage years.
But years later, when
Kathy was 35 and a successful engineer, she travelled to
London on a holiday, and, by chance, met
Mickey at a pub. They got to talking - which was difficult, over the noise - and it was as if no time had past since their last letter. They were married that very autumn. They now have two adult daughters -
Shayla, a commercial airline pilot in training, who followed in her mother's and grandfather's footsteps and is studying to be an engineer.
masculine list:
https://www.behindthename.com/pnl/191050/124079feminine list:
https://www.behindthename.com/pnl/191050/124080