Nicki as she is called now was Leonarda del Rosario. She immigrated to Canada as a nurse together with her friend Betty Rapadas. Living in Kitchener, Canada we drove their to meet her. Kitchener is nice and clean and a medium size city. But it is Canada. I persuaded Nicki to come with us, not on this trip, but on the next trips to join us in Chicago. I got to meet some of Nicki's friend like Auring and Tonette, and Ate Eddy and Ron. We lost contact with Ron and Ate Eddy. Auring got married and so is Tonette who got a girlfriend.
Finally in one of those trips Nicki went with us for good. She lived temporarily with Ate Cora and Joe at Cornelia St. near Addison in Chicago while working for Ravenswood Hospital. I was still working at Sara Lee. We went one Monday morning to downtown, went to a judge who married us. Of course we have to apply and undergo medical examination but marriage with the judge happened that day in Oct. 18, 1969. The Judge was Lempous and the marriage certificate cost $10. Afterwards we went to have breakfast and then go see a movie. It was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid showing. Nicki wanted to be married in the church so we plan to have it in Jan. 17, 1970. My friend Fr. Nicolas Bautista happened to be on an assignment in Chicago and I asked him to officiate. The church was at Our Lady of the Angels Church in Chicago. Nicki is already pregnant with Omar. So Omar attended his mom's wedding that day. On that day it was snowing pretty hard. When we all left the apartment I was directing traffic (in my tuxedo) and realized that everybody have left for the church. I left my keys in the apartment. So here I am standing on the street of Cornelia. I waited for somebody to come. After an hour or so my brother arrived driving from New York with Guing his wife. They have been driving for two days! I flagged my brother, told him to slide over and I drove to the church. It is good our officiating priest is a friend of mine. I was two hours late. We had the reception at Petronia. The food was a thick filet mignon and there were many leftovers which they gave us to take home. The whole marriage, dinner, flowers, photos, album cost a whopping $500. You can not buy one like that today. Except for Nicki's wedding dress yes it cost $500. But we don't have that much money. I went to the Bank of Ravenswood and told the loan officer I need a loan of $500. He asked what do you need it for? For my wedding. Big grin and after asking his boss they gave us a loan. Nicki's friends from Canada came over. Betty, Tonette, Auring. My sister Thelma attended, my brother Fred and Guing. Two guys from Sara Lee came, my supervisor Tony and Elmer. Robert my landlord at the house I am boarding came too. He gave us a memorable set of utensils which to this day we have not used. We all retired to Cornelia. No honeymoon, remember I have to borrow $500 for the wedding. So Nicki and I have to go to work the following Monday. I told Nicki I owed her a honeymoon and I will be paying and taking her to a honeymoon place for the rest of our lives.
We moved to an apartment at North Point, Chicago. It was a rundown place formerly inhabited by a drunk guy who they forced out to rent to us. I fixed the place even painting the bathroom where the old paint is peeling off. This building is a typical wood building in Chicago with two door entrances, one in front and one in the rear. The rear has stairs leading down to the ground. This is where I received a letter from Ohio University telling me that my application to the Graduate School of Chemical Engineering is accepted. School starts in June and this is January. We need to make plans to move to Athens, Ohio where the school is. Nicki and I made a trip to Athens and scouted the place. The school has a apartment for students and we applied to get into one.
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