journey back to Egypt, she found her mother had a prolapsed uterus. Natalia insisted Ilsa get this fixed before she visited Maria. Surgery was arranged. Ilsa wrote Maria that she would visit her in Egypt at some time in the near future. She explained she was having surgery and as soon as she recovered she would make the trip to Suez. Ilsa was hospitalized and the surgery was successful. However, a few days later her heart went into arrhythmia and the doctors could never slow it down. As Ilsa began to die, she started asking for Igor, whom she had not seen in several years. Natalia called Igor who immediately got in his Model-T Ford and drove all night from Houston to New Orleans. During the night, Ilsa told Natalia that she needed to see Igor before it was too late.
“Don’t worry mother. He’s on the way,” explained Natalia.
During the night, Ilsa would wake up and ask for Igor. Finally, Natalia realized that Ilsa would die before Igor arrived. The next time Ilsa awakened, she again asked for Igor. Natalia told Ilsa he was there and that Ilsa had just talked to him. Ilsa smiled. Natalia asked if she should get Igor in the hall. Ilsa said no. Igor arrived, but it was too late. Ilsa was gone. He did not have a chance to say good-bye to his mother.
As fate would have it, a letter arrived from Maria that very afternoon. As usual, the letter was addressed only to Ilsa and written in Greek. Natalia opened the letter and realized no one in the family would be able to read it. Natalia took the letter to the funeral home and placed it in the casket with her mother.
Within a year, Jakob died of an aneurysm. In years to come, Natalia’s children would vaguely remember their grandparents, Ilsa and Jakob Dodik. Winifred and Trisha would know their father’s parents only through the stories Natalia Merot would tell them.
The University of Alabama
September 8, 1963
A young woman and slightly younger man sat in a discreet corner of the room at the Snack Bar in Martha Parham Hall. Both had been told they should meet the other before the fall semester began.
After they introduced themselves, the woman said, “I’m from New York and have been assigned a roommate from the Birmingham area for the fall semester. I really don’t know anything about her, but I hope she will not bother me or interfere with my work.”
“You don’t know anything else about her?” asked the young man.
“I’m sure she was just randomly assigned to me, but I wish I knew more about her. Our room is just two doors down from Vivian Malone’s and from what I can decipher, the two girls in the room closest to Vivian’s are rather obnoxious.”
“Interesting! I’ve been living in the same dorm where James Hood was. Sounds like we are going to have an interesting year,” replied the gentleman. “My roommate is a guaranteed trouble maker. His family has ties to the Klan. Even so, I really need to fit in if I am going to survive the University of Alabama. I hope I can come across as a ‘good ole boy’ and hold on as best as I can. So, if anybody asks, please tell them I’m just a regular southern guy from Toomsuba, Mississippi.”
“I’ll be interested to hear all about your adventures, once the semester starts,” smiled the woman.
“I hope your roommate turns out to be a good one for you. I know mine is going to be challenging, to say the least!” replied the man.
The University of Alabama
September 9, 1963
Winifred Dodd returned to Martha Parham dormitory in the fall. She was cautious about beginning the new school year because her roommate from freshman year had transferred to Livingston State College. Posie Walker was Winifred’s best friend since elementary school and they had been compatible, even as roomies at Parham. Posie’s boyfriend, Buck Birdsall was a football player at Livingston and he had strongly urged her to transfer so she could be with him. Posie tried out for cheerleader at Livingston and had been chosen as an alternate. One of the girls who had made the team got married and so Posie would start her sophomore year at Livingston as a cheerleader and girlfriend of one of the most popular campus jocks. Winifred’s other friends from high school who attended the University of Alabama were in sororities. Winifred would start the year with a roommate she did not know.
Angelina Tortoli, Winifred’s new bedfellow, was an Italian woman from Brooklyn, New York. Angie told Winifred that she’d transferred from Sarah Lawrence College. Angie had never been south of the Mason Dixon line and now she was enrolled at Alabama. The day before Winifred arrived, Angie had moved into their room, on the west wing of third floor, not far from the counselor’s suite at the end of the hall.
Martha Parham Hall was the newest building on campus. It could easily have been mistaken for an elegant apartment building had it been on the upper Eastside of Manhattan. The building covered an entire city block with an east and west wing and a huge entrance in the middle with a reception desk in the center of the lobby. On the first floor was a stupendous living room with a baby grand piano. The dining hall, where all the residents ate their meals, was on the west wing on the ground floor. A snack bar that served hamburgers, hotdogs, and soft drinks all day was in the east side.
The elevators at Parham were located in the center of the building. At the end of each wing were TV rooms, bathrooms, and rows of lavatories. Parham was strictly women’s quarters as Alabama had no co-ed dorms in the 1960s. In fact, if a resident’s father wanted to see her room, he had to sign in at the front desk and take the elevator with his daughter. When they reached her floor, she had to shout, “Man on the floor,” in order for him to get off the elevator and follow her to her room. The rooms on each floor were all designed for two residents and were all in a row that ended where the TV rooms, lavatories, and bathrooms began. At the very end of each wing was a suite for graduate students who served as counselors for the wing. And, Miss Barton, the house mother, had her own private apartment on first floor, where no student was ever allowed.
When Winifred arrived at her room, Angelina was there waiting for her. Winifred was surprised to see her. “Hi, I’m Winifred! You must be my new roommate.”
“Hello, I’m Angelina Tortoli, but all my friends call me Angie.”
Winifred began introducing herself to Angie. She told Angie all about her life in Homewood, Alabama, how her father had died in an accident the year before, how she went to college in the summer so she could finish college in three years, and how she couldn’t afford to join a sorority because her family didn’t have enough money. She explained that she was a fashion merchandising major in the College of Home Economics and hoped to get a job in New York City as a fashion designer some day. Winifred added that she was glad Angie was her new roommate because she could tell her all about what it was like to live in New York. Winifred was nervous at meeting Angie and so she talked. She talked and talked, but that was Winifred. She rambled when she was nervous.
Angie reciprocated, using a less revealing and more restrained approach. She told Winifred all about being from a large Sicilian family, about growing up in Brooklyn, attending Sarah Lawrence College, and never having been to the South before now. She explained that she had come to Alabama to major in criminal justice because Alabama had a good program. Then Angie hesitated for a moment, but decided to go ahead and ask Winifred about the protests and arrests that had occurred in Birmingham recently.
“Homewood’s near Birmingham, right?” asked Angie.
“That’s right,” replied Winifred. “Sometimes I tell people I’m from Birmingham. Everyone knows where Birmingham is, but some people may not know about Homewood.”
“In New York I read a lot about what’s happened in Birmingham this year. I’m sure you know more about it than I do, living in Birmingham. I read about Martin Luther King Jr.’s arrest, but I guess the Children’s Crusade was the most interesting to me. I couldn’t believe Eugene Connor, I think they call him “Bull” Connor used hoses and attack dogs on all of those young children.”
“You know I don’t know that much about it,” explained Winifred. “College has consumed most of my time, but my mama told me to never go into