Any chance of Germans immigrating to America after World War II rested on them belonging to preferred groups the U.S. government allowed for entry and sponsorship. With the threat of the Cold War and tensions rising between the Soviet Union and the United States, German rocket scientists were given visas, even those with Nazi ties. War brides of U.S. soldiers were given priority as well. Victims of National Socialism or close relatives of American citizens were also allowed to apply for visas but weren’t guaranteed entry. The U.S. government required that immigrants from these groups have a sponsor to avoid dependence on social welfare programs. Sponsors, whether relatives, churches, volunteer organizations, or in some cases farmers who guaranteed housing and employment had to submit an affidavit pledging support of the immigrant. As a former POW, Frederick technically wasn’t even allowed in the United States because anyone in the Wehrmacht couldn’t reenter the United States until after September 1948, when the travel ban was lifted for Germans who didn’t fall into any prioritized groups. But exceptions were always made, including for sponsored ex-POWs who posed no threat.27 And in Frederick’s case, he was a fiancé to Elinor and father to a newly born American son who needed his support.

Frederick’s visa application was accepted, and Elinor saved a copy of the letter Gwyneth wrote. Her friend’s generosity paid off, and Frederick was granted entry into the United States, arriving on June 21, 1947, and marrying Elinor five days later at the courthouse in downtown Manhattan.28 The two saw no point in delaying their nuptials for any reason, and New York didn’t have an anti-miscegenation law, like several other states in the United States, where their interracial marriage would have been against the law.

Elinor could finally silence all of the doubters about Frederick’s love for her, her mother among them. He had come back and married her just as he had promised. And their nuptials helped bolster the less-than-flattering opinion Gladys initially had of her new son-in-law. From what she could tell, he did want to make a life in the United States, but as a husband and father, not as a hustler or manipulator.29

Elinor had endured nine months of pregnancy, much of that spent alone after Frederick was sent back to Europe, and another six months of single parenthood after Stephen’s birth. But she was now Mrs. Frederick Albert. Gladys, bedridden, didn’t witness the civil ceremony, but Hope Taylor, Elinor’s niece, remembered hearing years later about an official celebration of Elinor’s marriage back home in Milton. Even though Elinor defied all of the characteristics of a traditional bride, the etiquette that Gladys was accustomed to would have required a social gathering of some kind—one that was small and subdued given the extenuating circumstances, but a proper occasion nonetheless.