Love Story: It took a few years for them to get around to dating

Daniel Palermo of North Amityville talks about meeting his wife, Ellie.

It was 1948, and I was living in Sunnyside, Queens, when I spotted Anna Elisa Sanchez one day walking with her aunt in a quiet neighborhood in nearby Woodside. I later learned she was home on summer break from Villa Maria, a Catholic school in Montreal. Her parents died young, and Anna Elisa and her two brothers were adopted by an aunt who enrolled them in the private school. Anna Elisa returned to Woodside every summer.

I was in the back of my Dad’s open-air delivery truck one day when I saw her. What a pretty sight in a pink sweater and her hair fixed just so. We exchanged waves and she gave me a smile. This went on for a few years until I enlisted in the Marine Corps in April 1950 and served in the Korean War. On leave in 1952, I had a chance meeting with Anna Elisa near Earle Theatre in Woodside. We made small talk for a bit and she invited me to join her and her friends to see a movie. I declined because I was meeting friends later. I realized immediately it was an opportunity to get to know her better that I let slip by.

After my discharge, I worked briefly as an electrician then considered reenlisting. One night I went to the Black Horse Inn in Woodside and ordered a beer. I said hello to Mrs. Madden, the owner. She had been serving me and friends since we were 15. Her policy was: “If you can pay, you can drink. Just don’t start trouble.”

The front door opened and in walked Frank Calvo, a high school friend, with two young ladies. One was Genie, who Frank was sweet on. The other was Anna Elisa. She was pretty as ever and had a pleasant smile. I leapt off the bar stool to meet her. We shook hands and said our hellos.

The four of us got a table, ordered drinks and brought one another up to date on our lives. When it was Ellie’s turn (she didn’t use Anna Elisa any longer but instead Ellie, a nickname her family bestowed), she told us about shopping at Fields Department Store, a favorite of hers, and buying a dress for $60. That was a week’s salary for some during the 1950s. I couldn’t help myself and blurted out, “No wife of mine would spend that much on a dress.”

Everyone laughed, and I asked myself, "Why the hell did I say 'wife'?"

We double-dated for a while, then Ellie and I became serious. We dated exclusively for a year and became engaged. We were married May 22, 1955, at St. Sebastian Roman Catholic Church in Woodside and moved to Valley Stream shortly afterward. Our first daughter, Laura, was born there, and our second daughter, Lisa, was born nine years later in East Elmhurst. I worked for and retired from NYNEX in 1996. Ellie went to Columbia University shortly after the kids started school and eventually became a principal at a private school in Manhattan.

In our retirement, we have traveled to Europe, enjoyed cruises and gone to operas at Lincoln Center. In 2019 we moved to North Amityville.

To this day, I still ask myself why did I use the word "wife"? Was it fate, the book of life or a slip of the tongue that put us on our path? No matter. It has been a great journey, and we celebrated our 65th wedding anniversary in May.

— With Ann Donahue-Smukler