When my cousins, Sharon and Diane and I were adolescents, Aunt Anne -who always loved to play games - introduced us to a cute little fortune telling game using a deck of cards. You would line up the 4 Kings on the floor or table and name each one after a guy you liked or thought liked you. Usually one of the Kings was named Mr. X and that was someone that you hadn't even met yet. So, for example, the King of Hearts might be named Bob; the King of Spades, Joe; the King of Clubs, Donnie; and the King of Diamonds, Mr. X. Then the participants would come up with questions like the following: Who likes me the most?; Who is going to kiss me?; Who is going to quickly disappear from my life?; Who will I marry?, etc. You would hold the rest of the deck in your hands and flip cards over onto each King: when the suite of the card matched the suite of the King, you would have the answer to that question. It was a silly little game but we would have great fun laughing and teasing each other about the "men" in our lives. When it was Aunt Anne's turn to pick the Kings, she would always name one of the Kings, Eddie. The one you liked the most would usually was assigned to be the King of Hearts. This was the way I first learned the story of Eddie.Anne Rose O'Donnell was born at 662 Halsey Street in Brooklyn on Dec. 10th, 1920. She was the fourth daughter born to Margaret Coleman and T.J. O'Donnell. Throughout her childhood and youth Anne would spend her summers at her Grandma Hannah (Byrne) Coleman's aka, Hannah Work Coleman's home in the beautiful hills of a tiny little hamlet known as Friendsville, Pennsylvania. Anne absolutely loved going up to "the country" as she called it; she shared how wonderful it was to be away from the heat and the congestion of the city streets and roaming instead through the lush and green countryside of Pennsylvania. As she grew from a child into a young, vibrant woman, the calls of the square dances that were held in the Friendsville Church Hall began to beckon her. It was then that Annie met a handsome young farmer by the name of Eddie. From all the descriptions I have ever heard from Anne and other family members, it was love at first sight. The couple had a great time together in this idyllic setting; Eddie took Anne out in his car and taught her to drive and they spent all their free time together. Before you knew it the summer had flown by and it was time to say Good-bye. Annie had to go back to her life and responsibilities in the city.
But every June, when the warm weather arrived and Annie returned to the country, Eddie, would be waiting with open arms. Anne graduated from Franklin K. Lane High School and took a job at Talbot Bird Insurance Company in Manhattan, but even though certain things changed, she would still spend her vacations up in Friendsville. On October 19, 1940, when Annie was 19 years old, Eddie Moran, came down to Brooklyn to escort her to my parents wedding at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church. There is a picture of this handsome looking couple - Anne O'Donnell and Eddie Moran - sitting together at Rita and Charlie's luncheon wedding reception in the the rooftop solarium of the Hotel Granada in Brooklyn. They appeared to be made for each other and most people would have assumed that they might be the next ones to the altar.
One summer, after several years had passed, when Anne returned to the country, she was greeted with the heartbreaking news that Eddie was engaged to be married. Nonetheless, Eddie heard of Annie's arrival and came to see her. When he saw his Annie once again, he discovered that his feelings for her were as strong as ever, he still loved her very much. He expressed his love and told her that if she would consent to be his wife, he was ready to break his engagement and marry her instead. When Aunt Anne told me the story she said that she thought that this would have been a terrible thing to do. He had gotten engaged to someone else and obviously he must have had deep feelings for this other woman also. Also, Aunt Anne was concerned that leaving her beloved family would have been very difficult for her. Back in those days, it was easily an eight hour long, winding car ride from Brooklyn to Friendsville, Pa. How could she leave her family and move so far away? Besides, she felt it might be very difficult for her to adjust to life as a farmer's wife since she had been a city girl all her life and was now a business woman and supervisor in a New York City Insurance firm. Nevertheless it was not an easy decision for Anne; I feel certain she must have questioned her decision at different times over the years. I know she really loved Eddie very much. I know for a fact that Annie had other beaus and other marriage proposals, but she remained single her entire life. I can't help but wonder if she never married because she continued to carry Eddie, the Love of her Life, in her heart. Possibly, she had no room for any other man.
So let's skip forward 55 years to 1994-
As the Executrix of Anne' will, I was responsible for going through all of her personal belongings after her death. If any of you have ever had this job, you'll understand what I mean when I say that it gave me a very weird feeling. I felt like I was totally invading Aunt Anne's privacy. It is absolutely something that honorable people don't typically do, i.e., rummage through some one's drawers and most intimate items. While completing this rather sad task, I eventually got around to Annie's nightstand - the one right next to where she laid her head each night. There were only a few things in the drawer, but right on top was this sweet little picture of Annie and Eddie - the one I included at the top. On the back of the photo written in pencil it said, Eddie and Annie - 1939. It was amazing to me to find that she kept this picture of the "Love of her Life" so close to her for all these years. I guess he really was Annie's Love and the King of her Heart.
Mary Beth
L to R - Anne O'Donnell, Ruth Geary Snover, Kate Moran, Eddie Moran
In
her teen years, Anne and Eddie were "an item" during Anne's visits to
Friendsville, Pa each summer. She would come up from Brooklyn with her
mother and father ( Margaret and TJ O'Donnell) as soon as school
let out in Brooklyn in the late spring/early summer. Sometimes, Anne
and her siblings even attended some classes with their country cousins
(since their country school might still be in session). My grandmother,
Margaret Coleman, - the day after her wedding to Thomas J. O'Donnell
on January 19th, 1916, - permanently left her mother, Hannah Byrne
Coleman, and all of her seven siblings in order to move to Brooklyn
with her new husband. I can only imagine that this was a difficult
thing for Margaret to do, and probably the reason she spent summers with
her mother, Hannah Coleman, in Friendsville, Pa. TJ, being a NYPD
police officer, would take a week off at both the beginning and the end
of the summer months in order to transport his wife and kids to
Pennsylvania. Many years ago, Margaret made the decision to leave her beloved family and her life in the "country" to come to NYC with the love of her life, T.J. O'Donnell. Many years later, when confronted with a similar decision, her daughter, Anne Rose O'Donnell chose differently. 
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