Violet and Carmen

Me at 120 Washington Avenue, Downingtown, PA August 8, 2010

 Since the death of Bill I've been revisiting significant episodes of my life. 

I've been reading a lot about near death experiences and how when your soul departs from your body your life is reviewed with a "Board of Elders". This is not judgement but rather a video review of  your life. How you treated others in your life both from your aspect and their aspect, how you made them feel. I haven't died but I have been having dreams, both at night and during the day of reviews of my life and those episodes.

One episode that has always stuck with me my whole life was the Mystery of Carmen and Violet. 

From 1943 to 1954 I lived with my family at 120 Washington Avenue in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.

That little kid with the fat ass would be me running up the stairs to our apartment on the second floor. The two adults are my mom and my father. This photo take around 1946, the time of the "Carmen and Violet Mystery"

 We lived in a second floor two bedroom apartment that rented for $22.50 a month (I will always remember that rent because my Mother often had problems coming up with that amount monthly). 

120 Washington Avenue, Downingtown, Pa 
September 10, 2004

Other member of my Tipton family also lived in that apartment building, which is stills standing today. And interestingly it is still in the white trash section of Downingtown. Yes, our family was white trash, another word for POOR.  My father was an uneducated hillbilly from North Carolina who came with his eight brothers and mother and father in 1929 from the mountains of western North Carolina to southern Chester County to work as cheap farm labor at his uncle Don Byrd's fruit and vegetable farm in Unionville, Pennsylvania. My Mother was descended from a poor Quaker families who had immigrated to Pennsylvania in the late 1600's. Her mother died before she was two years old. Her father was a philanderer and physically and mentally abused her as the youngest of her family. She ran off and got married at sixteen years of age when she met my father on a double date (she switched dates with her girlfriend when she saw my father and his drop dead hillbilly looks for the first time.

My father at 21 years of age. He met my Mother when he was 18 years old. My Mother knew what she wanted and she went after it! Shortly before she died she told me "Your father was the only man I was ever with."

My father was originally her girlfriend's date but when my father drove up in his car with a rumble seat in the back my Mother told her friend Edie "You get in the back with Hank, I'm sitting up front with HIM!" 

I found this picture of my parents in his wallet after he died. He carried it all those years (60) that they were married.

Now that I have set the background to my story of the "Mystery of Carmen and Violet." 

Carmen and Violet lived in the neighboring apartment on the second floor where we lived. 

They had a little girl whose name I don't remember now but I do remember the names "Carmen and Violet." I also remember that evening December 11th, 1946 when something very serious happened. 

I had just turned five years old. I had just started first grade. I was awakened by a lot of muffled voices and shuffling around. I got up and went into the small hallway separating our apartments (it was very small, I guess that's why my parents were so friendly with Carmen and Violet, they were also about the same age). The police were there with flash lights. They entered Carmen and Violet's apartment in the dark with their flashlights dancing about the small room looking for Carmen and Violet's little girl. Their little girl was between a year and two years old. She was in the apartment by herself and was still groggy from being awakened. I asked my Mother what was going on. She told me to go back to bed. Of course I couldn't, I was born nosey. She eventually told me that Carmen and Violet had been in an accident and they had to take the little girl (I wish I could remember her name) away. I've forgotten a lot in my life but that is one episode that I never forget. The confused look on that little girl's face as the police carried her out of that darkened apartment. Later, much later I found out that Carmen and Violet, along with another couple were killed in a head on crash with an oncoming truck on Route 322 returning from West Chester after purchasing paint. My Mother told me the details of the story about Carmen and Violet about 2005 after I asked her during one of the trips I often took her to visit her relatives. She was now forthcoming with the information on Carmen and Violet.  I told her that I often remembered that night the police came into our cockroach infested apartment building and searched out for Carmen and Violet's little girl who no longer had parents. That was the first time in my life I know SOMETHING WAS WRONG even though no one would tell me what happened.

It's a funny think this story has stuck in my head all these years, often coming back. A few years ago a "Remember Downingtown" group formed on Facebook. I joined it because I had memories to share. Someone else posted their memory about that accident that Carmen and Violet were in. A head on crash with the four of them in their car rounding a turn on Rt. 322 returning from the nearby town of West Chester after buying paint. Four people dead. Lives cut short. A little girl an orphan.

I've often wondered over the years what happened to that little girl. I think one of the reasons I've always remembered this story and that night was because of the exotic name "Carmen and Violet." I don't remember what they looked like but I do remember what their little girl looked like and that their apartment was small. Eventually my Uncle Dude Tipton and Aunt Jeanne Tipton moved in that little apartment with their four little girls. My Uncle Henry and his wife Margaret lived in the apartment above us. 

Why do I bring this story up now? This morning I searching for high school records on Ancestry.com and I came across a link for an Edward Thompson. The reason the "Thompson" link showed up on my Ancestry.com account was because my cousin Jane Tipton (daughter of the aforementioned Henry and Margaret Tipton) eventually married John Thompson, a relative of Edward Thompson. Does  your head hurt now? So what does Edward Thompson have to do with Carmen and Violet? Edward Thompson was the father of Violet. 

What came up on Ancestry.com? Carmen and Violet's death certificate. 

Carmen Marino's death certificate

Violet Thompson Marino's death certificate

I pay a lot for my annual membership of Ancestry.com. the past five years I've rarely used it what with my quarterly holidays with Pat and the last three years taking care of Bill. This year I was considering cutting back on my full membership for a cheaper price but now I have changed my mind. Ancestry.com has opened up so much to me that was previously lost to history. I love this kind of information. Looking at Carmen and Violet's death certificates I now know the date and time of their accident and deaths. 

I hope I haven't bored anyone to death with post on this serendipitous discover. I am fascinated with this kind of history especially from my past.

I am convinced when I die I will find out ALL THE ANSWERS. I am so looking forward not only to reuniting with Bill, which I know will happen but also meeting all my relatives again. I'm also looking forward to that review of my life and know what former lives I have lived. Do I sound crazy? I'm not I assure you. I never did subscribe to this man made religion (Organized Religion). Never made sense to me. But what does make sense to me is that our souls or spirit inhabits our physical bodies during this earthly learning experience. I don't fear death. Our real life is our spirit and when we die we really do go Home. Maybe I'll see Carmen and Violet.