Jackie Olesky Straight, Susie Ballinger

ST. PATRICK’S DAY STORY

3 tales of long-time friendships

This is a tale to make even non-Irish eyes smiling on St. Patrick’s Day.

Jackie Olesky Straight, Class of 1955, who lives in Rivesville, and Susie Ballinger are best friends celebrating St. Patrick’s Day together.

But that’s not the half of this remarkable story of friendship and being there when it counts the most.

Let Jackie, who has a famous brother who also graduated from Monongah High, tell the story:

“Susie and I have been friends about 19 years.

“Susie and I met more than 19 years ago in our exercise class (at the Fairmont Fitness spa).  Dave had just passed away a few months before so I was still dealing with his passing. 

“We became friends and started visiting with each other.  I met her husband, Larry, and we got along great. 

“When I was in the hospital for a week, Susie came every day to visit and bring goodies.  She was still working as a LPN so her time was limited. 

“On my 75th birthday, she and Larry came over for three days and scraped and power-washed my three wooden garage doors.  I helped them and the third day we spent eight hours painting the doors.  They also paid for the paint.  That is real friendship! 

“Larry passed away two years later from cancer.  I visited them as much as possible through his illness and death.  I was there for Susie as she was for me.  I certainly cherish our friendship!”

This isn’t the first time the Olesky family has been involved in a reciprocal friendship/helping hand.

When Betty Lynn Wilson, a majorette at Monongah High, married Lions football coach Jim Feltz, she was a young bride. Jim and Betty lived in the former Domico house that once housed Junior Domico, the late founder of Fairmont’s Domico Funeral  Home. It was next door to Our Lady of Pompei Church.

So Lena Olesky, mother of Jackie and John Olesky, Jr., Class of 1950, would help Betty get through the early days of her marriage.

When Lena passed away, Betty would check in on our father, John W. Olesky, Sr. If  she didn’t see him, or things didn’t look right, Betty would call Jackie who would investigate to see if Dad was OK.

When Coach Feltz passed away, Jackie and I both were at the Fairmont funeral home to support Betty.

As regular readers of this blog know, Bob Kasper, Class of 1950, and John Olesky have been best friends since they were first graders at Sts. Peter and Paul School in Monongah even though we grew up 2 miles apart.

We went to classes together from first grade through 12^th grade at Monongah High and even our first year at Fairmont State, before I transferred to West Virginia University to finish my degree.

In 1955, Bob sent a Christmas card that referred to “old friends, old times.” I sent Bob (we called him Satch during his Monongah High days because he always wore a cap, like Huntz Hall’s “Satch” character in the “Bowery Boys” movie series) a card with similar sentiments.

We exchange those two cards every year, with the names of all the family members after the year. By now the card tells a story of marriages, births and deaths.

We cried together when our wives, Bob’s Pat and my Monnie, passed away. We had reunions on Florida vacations, in Michigan where Bob lives and in Ohio where I live. I got to Bob’s summer home on Grand Lake (Presque Isle) every summer to play golf. He comes to our Tallmadge home to play golf and go to Mountaineer Field with me for a WVU game.

Friendships are import to the Olesky family.

And it’s not unique to the Oleskys. All over Monongah there are people who laugh, cry and mourn together throughout their lifetimes.

Sure and begorrah (it is St. Patrick’s Day), that’s just the way Monongah folks roll.