Love Story

When lean 50-year-old American Airlines Captain Elkins Floyd and his wife Mary were newlyweds, back in 1925, they resolved to raise a big family. A son was born, but as the years passed it became apparent that they would have no more children. The boy, Royce, became the focal point of their lives. He grew into a fine, strapping youth, was drafted into the Army after World War II, served in occupation forces in Germany, and came back to their home in Los Angeles determined to become a pilot like his father. "My ambition," he told the delighted airlines captain, "is to fly with you as your co-pilot."

To further his ambition, the Floyds built a small-craft landing strip in front of their house. Simply by standing near his front door, Pilot Floyd could watch his son's progress. One day in 1949 he watched the boy die; the youth's plane came down for a landing and crashed directly before his horrified father. For months after that the Floyds lived in a sort of daze. Finally Mrs. Floyd decided to adopt another child.

On a visit to Virginia, she stopped at a Methodist orphanage, saw a 13-year-old girl named Nellie Marie and instantly resolved to make the child her foster daughter. But almost immediately her hopes were checked. Nellie had four younger brothers and sisters, acted as a sort of mother to the group, and could not bear the thought of being separated from them. The Floyds knew they could not support five children without lowering their own level of living, and they were afraid it might be folly to take on a whole new family. Mrs. Floyd had seen only two of the children and Floyd himself had seen none of them. They gambled anyhow--in a fashion which would probably have appalled a social worker--and decided almost overnight to adopt the five.

Neither ever regretted their decision. Floyd's heart was won at the moment he called in a station wagon to pick up the two boys, each of whom was quartered in a different home. As soon as the youngsters met, they hugged each other, and the oldest turned, beaming at Floyd, and said: "I've been praying that somebody would adopt us all. You're gonna make a swell dad." Most of the difficulties which the Floyds had anticipated melted away. American Airlines obligingly shipped all five children to California on passes. The Floyds managed a bigger house. The children took to them from the beginning.

For three years the middle-aged couple tried to avoid publicity about their new family. But last week they proudly exhibited them on a Chicago television show, and were rewarded once again when Nellie, now 17 and pretty, said: "We think the most important thing about all this is how wonderful Mother and Dad have been in giving us normal lives."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.