When Rose Met Julius

 

It was on a vacation in 1933 that Rose met Julius. She, the recently widowed Mrs. George W. Kober, had made arrangements that summer to visit friends in nearby Garden City—twenty miles from her home in Woodhaven, less than an hour's journey by train. Perhaps her friends, sensing she needed to get out of the house where she and her husband had lived in New York City since their 1915 wedding, had suggested she come to visit them. After all, it had been well over a year since George's 1932 death. Perhaps a change of scenery and some fun activities with friends would do her good.

That, at least, was the story told in two New York newspapers which announced her wedding. "Vacation Romance Leads to Wedding," announced the Society page of the Long Island Daily Press on December 13, 1933, noting that the Saturday, December 9, wedding was held in Long Island City. The article, while providing Rose's age—fifty eight at the time—and address in Woodhaven, said little about the groom. That he was "with the post office" in Garden City, and that this was his first marriage, was all the paper gave of the man's identity, while details of Rose's previous marriage filled a paragraph.

To have captured a pertinent detail such as Julius' age might have helped me find what became of the couple after their marriage celebration. At least the names of the witnesses had been provided in the article, though Mrs. Emily Kollshdorf and Charles Peters are not names which I had seen before in family circles—details to add to Aunt Rose's "F.A.N." Club.

A second article in The Richmond Hill Record seemed merely to repeat the details I gleaned from the first newspaper. I found no other search results for Julius Hassinger, though that is not to say there aren't others out there. However, seeing mention of the wedding taking place further east on the island, plus the groom's residence in Garden City, seem to indicate the couple may have set up residence outside New York City limits. Perhaps I should widen the scope of my searches. And test out some "what if" scenarios. Nothing else has divulged whatever became of Aunt Rose.