This is the last romantic story of Luella and Francois.
I was working for dad at a Holiday Inn a friend of his bought and I started on July 19th, 1974.   On the 18th, dad took a lot of people out to dinner at his friends restaurant. We had a great time and they served alcohol to the few that were too young.
I watched as dad slowed down every month and by October he was looking worse. I went down to his room with 2 scotch and sodas. I said dad it might be time to go rest up back home. He said" I WILL TELL YOU WHEN IT IS TIME TO GO BOY!".
  Lo and behold 2 weeks later he calls me down, has me make 2 scotch and soda's. He says, " Your mother has been great to me and getting to know my kids again has lifted my spirits. But I want to do something nice. She will be here Friday morning and you will drive us home on Monday." Mom shows up and is really happy and we all eat diner in a banquet room. We open a bottle of bubbly and they start talking about the early life together. They laughed out loud and they were eating dessert when I snuck out. I guess it was the second year that they worked at Yosemite that they really got together. They had a wonderful time.
The next day I got my mom and Erika and had breakfast together and my dad came down with a smile which was rare. Erika went down to San Diego after and mom and I went out for a walk before I had to work the rest of the weekend. 
Monday after breakfast I loaded dad's and mom's stuff in the car and they both sat in the back and they fell asleep on each others shoulders for 50 miles or so. 
When we got home dad told me he left some things that I might be interested in. Dad had on him for years his original birth certificate and a picture of the 5 of us at Christmas. Look who was the best looking!! A watch and a few other things were all he left. /;-))

My aunt Irene was visiting from Minnesota in the late 70's. Mother, myself and her sister were going down to Ensenada for lunch. The beauty of the ocean views from the Highway are always impressive and I can't  remember if it was Irene's first time down past Tijuana. At the time Erika and I bought a beat up trailer with a cabana 1 mile north of Ensenada in San Miguel. But first we saw the harbor and restaurant row selling fish and tacos. I thought we would walk up to Hussongs and ordered 3 coronas. We were talking a while and two older guys next to us started to talk to my mom and my aunt. Next thing I know they are out dancing with them. I'm thinking how much fun it was to see them so happy and then 2 other guys were asking them to dance and several other people were dancing and Hussongs did not really have a dance floor. The  2 of them came back to the bar and the first two had bought them 2 more Coronas. Well, next thing I know the guys were spraying shook up beer at each other and then the room just went crazy with everybody spraying beer. I see a couple of federals coming in and I grab my mom and my aunt and stand next to the wall as they pass us and we get out to the sidewalk. As we were walking away, I see a couple more Feds closing the doors and away we went.

We had fish tacos down at restaurant row and then back to San Miguel for a rest. While I drove home I noticed that they had both fallen asleep and one of them was snoring. I remember thinking that at 60ish that was a Big Crazy Day.
Yes, it affirmed that they were Korstens!!

I know only what mom told me at breakfast together for 41 years. As the years passed she would always tell me the same 10 or so stories with only slight variations.

Mom left the farm at 19 years old. She had done all she could and desperately needed to leave. She confided in her father only and left when she could move into the basement of her fathers friend. She lived under the bar and maybe got some free food. She cleaned the bar, dishes and anything related that needed to be cleaned. There she was in 1937 away from the farm. She signed up for a class or classes and earned her a high school diploma. She then took accounting classes and hoped to move out when possible. 

At the bar, her problem was that the friend of her father was chasing her around and she was afraid he was going to force himself on her. She would hide in her living quarters with a locked door. I don't know how far this got or if anything bad happened, but she was scared. Her father visited her when he was in Minneapolis and he knew something was wrong. She then told him the truth and he screamed at his friend and threatened to kill him if something happened. Every time she would tell me this story it would conclude with her fathers cancer surgery in his stomach. I believe this was the first of 2 that he had before he passed...….When I go to Perry's Café I can almost see her at the table doing a puzzle and laughing that crazy laugh......Mike