Is Meets Was

Sitting on our front porch, wearing my Easter corsage c. 1947. (From left to right: Cousin Leila, me, Freddy, and Cousin Mary.) The holidays were wonderful! Every Easter my father would get us girls a corsage and a box of Loft’s chocolates. There were always colored, hard-cooked eggs, chocolates for the boys, and jelly beans of course. There was a bunch of daffodils, purchased on the way home from Mass, for my mother. My father always managed to make a little overtime just before Easter, so somehow there might be a new pair of shoes or even a new outfit. I especially remember a suit that my sister, Mary, made for me while she was in junior high school, P.S. 73. It was a hunter-green gabardine with a pleated skirt and an Eisenhower-style jacket. Another year she made a jacket out of grey flannel with a dark blue bow at the neck. Me and our Christmas tree draped in tinsel c. 1952. (This was a black and white photo that I hand-painted.) Christmas was always magical. Our ...

Merry Christmas. For me, Christmas is a nostalgic time as well as a joyous time. It is a time in which I remember the people who have touched my life. One such person is my paternal grandmother, Mary (Fitzgerald) Merrill. My life was touched by her absence. Mary holding Gil, Lib, and Dot, and Fred Merrill, 1913 Christmas Tree, 1913 In December 1913, my grandparents celebrated Christmas with a tree and a new camera. Fred and Mary were living in Franklin, New Hampshire with their three children: Dorothy Margaret (age 6), Elizabeth Mary (age 2), and Gilbert James Merrill (6 months). I wonder: "Were there presents under the tree for the children to open on Christmas morning? Did Santa stuff special treats in stockings hung by the chimney?" I do know that  there was plenty of snow to enjoy that winter.  Uncle Dan Fitzgerald c. 1913 Mary, Lib, Gil, and Dot, Winter 1913 Above is the only photograph I have of Uncle Dan. Two years later, at the age of 18,...