Is Meets Was

Donna (front, center); Cathy, Leila, Pat Aronica, Mary Heilig, family friend, Richie (middle row); Gil (back, center). c. 1948 at Uncle Fred and Aunt Betty's place in Bergen Beach, NY. I can’t remember the year, or exactly how old I was.  Mary (Hanna) Heilig and I had convinced Aunt Dot to let us look inside the trunk which contained our grandmother’s belongings. Trunk shown in the Spring edition of Sear's 1906 catalog. [Our grandmother, Mary Elizabeth [Fitzgerald] Merrill  died from the Spanish flu when our parents were still young children. Her husband survived another forty-seven years, forty-seven years in which he never ceased to mourn his loss.] I can tell you that we were sworn to secrecy. We were never ever to tell “Pup” that Aunt Dot let us look inside the trunk.  The look of sheer terror on Aunt Dot’s face was enough to let us know not to breathe a word to anyone. Dorothy aka Aunt Dot (top), Mary [aka Lib & Pat's mother-to-be], ...

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,...