The DeCarlo children and the Olesky children just can’t help crossing paths with each other even if it takes 12, 20 and 88 years to do it.

I got a Facebook post praising me for my Monongah High Alumni blog articles from Antoinette DeCarlo Haught, the daughter of Nick DeCarlo and Lucy DeCarlo.

Nick was the best man at the wedding of my parents John W. Olesky Sr. and Lena Futten Olesky when my dad’s sister, Helen Olesky Kerekes, was the maid of honor.

Nick also was my godfather at my Baptism. Walky McGraw, another of my dad’s 1930s friends, stood up for me at my Confirmation.

Antoinette was named for Nick’s mother, Antoinette Marie Palumbo DeCarlo, who married John DeCarlo.

 

Here is the message I got from Antoinette, who lives in Fairmont:

 

“John you do a wonderful job on articles.  
I enjoy them.

“I wanted to let you know that I’m not in the (Class of 1955) class picture.  I was born in Monongah, went to 1st grade with your sister Jackie (Olesky Straight) to the Catholic school (St. Stanislaus, later Sts. Peter & Paul).

“We moved to Rivesville. I graduated from Rivesville, Class of 1955.

“Mom and Dad moved back to Monongah.
Daddy owned Traction Park, sold lots, build 3
houses, lived up there until he passed in 1997.

“Mom then came to live with us
until she passed in 2000.

“My father was so proud to be your godfather. Every time we would drive by the house that had been your home place (on Church Street) my dad would always tell me about your father, how they were good friends and you were his godson. (Only godchild)

“Daddy was quiet as he got older and liked staying at home. He was a wonderful father and did so much for starting youth baseball Little League. No credit, but that’s another story for another time.

“Have a nice day. God Bless.”

Wait, that’s only part of the story about the children of the bride and groom and best man in that January 1932 wedding.

As Antoinette recalled, she was in first grade with my sister, Jackie Olesky Straight, Class of 1955. Then Nick and Lucy moved to Rivesville with their family.

Meanwhile, Jackie and husband Dave were going to the Catholic church in Grant Town and Antoinette was attending Our Lady of Assumption Church in Rivesville.

Eventually, Jackie and Dave switched to the Rivesville church but Jackie and Antoinette didn’t reunite . . . yet.

Jackie and Dave’s son, Kurt David, passed away at the age of 3 months and 11 days in 1961. The Rivesville priest sent Antoinette, who also had lost a child, to visit Jackie and help Jackie deal with such a terrible loss as another with the same horrible experience.

Antoinette looked at Jackie and said, “Don’t you remember me. We were in kindergarten together.”

Monongah Catholic School, St. Stanislaus first and renamed Sts. Peter and Paul later, didn’t have kindergarten so Jackie said, “It was in first grade.”

Since Jackie and Antoinette have been seeing each other every Saturday night for Mass, at St. Peter’s Church in Fairmont after the Rivesville parish closed and its parishoners transferred to St. Peter’s.

Antoinette was a big help to Jackie, who was dealing with the loss of her infant son and, immediately afterward, two of Jackie’s daughters were hospitalized with the flu for two weeks.

“We went home and had no children there,” Jackie remembers. “It was a nightmare.”

A funeral for your baby and visiting your two daughters in the hospital during the same time span definitely qualifies as a nightmare.

Today Jackie, the widow of Dave, has three daughters: Susan Renee Straight, a pharmacist at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown who arranges for the 4 season tickets in Section 105 at Mountaineer Field every year for Jackie, Renee, me and my guest (a family member, usually); Lea Ann Straight Barnes, married to John Barnes; and Belinda Straight Morris, married to Dave Morris.

John W. Olesky, Sr. and Nick DeCarlo both played baseball for the Monongah miners team after they were married, so Nick working with children in baseball was a natural.

By the way, I spent 40 years working with children in baseball in West Virginia and Ohio, so godfather and godson had a similar penchant.

Speaking of marriage:

When Nick DeCarlo and my father went to a carnival in Fairmont in the early 1930s they saw two young girls who immigrated to America from Italy in 1920 when they were 9 and 10 years old along with their Mom and brother, long-time barber Si Futten. Their father had come to America a few years earlier.

Nick looked at my aunt, Gezala Futten Loss, and said, “I’ll pick that one.” So my dad picked the other sister, my mother, Lena Futten Olesky.

Lena and Johnny married in January 1932 and I was born 9 months and 5 days later on November 5, 1932. I was a Pittsburgh hotel honeymoon conception. One year my dad pointed at the hotel and said, “This is where you were started.”

Nick became my godfather at my Baptism. Walky McGraw stood for me at my Confirmation.

I didn’t see either Nick or Walky for the last 75 years of my life. I’m 87, and will be 88 on November 5.

Nick’s siblings were Tom DeCarlo, who also played baseball as an adult and married Edith Fazio DeCarlo; Virginia DeCarlo Stanley of Sykesville, Maryland; Joseph DeCarlo; Michael DeCarlo; Fred DeCarlo; Felix DeCarlo; James V. DeCarlo, Sr.; Ann DeCarlo Martin; Margaret DeCarlo Hubble; Rose DeCarlo Chase; Mary DeCarlo Adducchio; and Elizabeth DeCarlo.

This godfather story is far, far better for me than “The Godfather” movie series. And it doesn’t involve a severed horsehead on a bed.