Happy 100th Birthday Grandma!

Today is my Grandma's 100th Birthday,
and although she passed away 13 years ago,
I thought it proper to honor her just the same.

She was pretty awesome.

This is my favorite picture of her.

Frances (McAullife) McMahon

She was in her 20s here, and it was the 1930s. 

She reminds me of me.

Don't cha think?

 She was the only grandparent I was lucky enough to really know.

My Mom’s parents died when she was relatively young.

Her father when she was 14, and her mom when she was 24.  

My Dad’s dad died when I was 6, and being that he lived

on the other side of the US, I only met him once or twice.  

This is my Grandma and Grandpa McMahon.

Paul Richard McMahon, Sr. & Frances (McAullife) McMahon, 1936-ish. 

Is it weird to say I think Gramps was kind of hot?

You go Grandma!  

And Grams had some pretty chic fashion sense.

I think she got it from her parents.

These are my Great-Grandparents, Mary and James McAuliffe. (1945)

Doesn’t this picture make you want to live back then?

You know, minus the whole Great Depression thing.

I love the old cars and how everyone dressed up and wore coats and cool hats.

Total wannabe right here. . .

 My Grandma was ahead of her time, 

receiving a Masters degree in Mathematics with a Minor in Home Economics

 from Regis College in 1934.

Regis was a small private all-girls Roman Catholic college

located in Western Massachussetts.

And later she became a volunteer at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, CT.

I did not inherit either of these capabilities.

(My math = calculator. Blood & guts = Me passing out.)

I did however, inherit her giggle,

which I think might be one of her best qualities.

Grams mid-giggle (c. 1936).                 Me mid-giggle (c. 2012).

And as any devout Catholic,

Grams was also a constant support to St. Augustine's Church, 

which was literally across the street from her house on Barker Street.

St. Augustine's Catholic Church.

The homefront. 187 Barker Street.

If they needed something, anything,

she was always sure to find a way to help,

 often enlisting one or more of her brood to be of assistance.

Her brood. Well, you know, many years later. 1999.

My Dad has so many wonderful stories about his Mother.

And I can listen to them all day.
(Which is good. Because once he gets started, well, it's going to be a while.)

One of the things I love most about it all,

is that this family is rooted so deep in history,

and my Grandma, a Matriarch of Matriarchs,

has so much to do with that.

Her children and grandchildren congregated around her,

not because they had to, but because they wanted to.

She was a woman of wits, and spirit and selflessness.

This is my Grandma as I remember her.

My Grandma & I at my Uncle Jimmy & Aunt Ellen's wedding. 1990.

And even though she lived in Connecticut,

 and I in California, we were quite close.

We wrote each other letters on a regular basis

and would enjoy some intermittent phone calls here and there. 

Since her birthday was on April 2nd, 

 it was our family tradition to call her

on the 1st to say "Happy Birthday" as an April fools joke.

And she'd fall for it every time.

"Ooo! Is today my birthday?"

Her 'Ooo' had this way of sounding almost like an owl's soft coo.

She lived to be 86.

I was 17 and a Junior in high school when she died.

And even though it has been 13 years, I still get warm fuzzy feelings

remembering her giggle, her voice, her smile.

Love you Grams!

XO

Aimers

See my post on her Irish Bread recipe here.