32 - Me

Me

I was born in Canton, Ohio on April 11th 1919 to Abe and Myrtle Goodfriend. Imagine growing up with the last name of Goodfriend especially with a father who's first initial was A. There was a very wonderful large family around me. Four great-grandparents, four grandparents, numerous uncles and aunts and of course, Mother and Father and all involved with naming the first little girl in a very long time. It was my grandfather, Hyman, who insisted that I be named for his Bubba (Grandmother) Velia and the doctor, who at the end of three days, asking my Hebrew name decided to settle the arguments between Valerie, Victoria, Virginia, etc. by simply naming me Vailia. (This finally allowed him to file the certificate of my birth and comply with the three-day law.)

Father's family all lived in Chicago, Mother's in Canton and I and my brother, Marshall (who much of the time we call Buddy) moved back and forth between cities. When I was ten and Marshall was six we made our way to California to join Mother's parents in Los Angeles. It was October 1929 when we arrived, still in the great depression, and a time to learn and grow with survival skills.

As a seriously ill child, I was denied the experience of any type of exercise, no gym in school, no dancing lessons, no swimming, no bicycling and a prognosis of death at an early age....with the warning "should I survive and marry, no children" (the kidneys would not stand the strain.) I fooled them all and am the delighted parent of a son and daughter, the ecstatic grandmother of Tavis, Vailia and Lindsay, and the proud great-grandmother of Laura.

Early on, I became a jack-of-all-trades and master of few, writing poetry by the time I was five, creating a doll wedding-gown cut from my great-grandmother's French lace curtains (this did have repercussions), wrapping gift-boxes at seventeen for the Christmas windows of a major department store, becoming active in my family's drug stores in 1938 in San Diego, joining the work-force in aerospace during World War II, marrying, having children, involving them and myself in activities at Temple Beth Israel for 18 years, opening the first boutique in San Diego, becoming involved with community affairs, receiving a key to the city from Mayor Dahl, and much more including laying the ground-work for women, as outside sales-representatives, by being the first women hired by 3M Company in the Los Angeles area for that position. 

I've tried to make this short, but 85years is a long time to live, with many experiences and many opportunities. I've faced joys and tragedies, adventures and boredom, expectations and broken dreams, and survived to this day with hope for the future and a love affair with life.