Remember

It has been 24 years since you left us and it feels as though you were here yesterday. Your love has sustained me through the tough times and I will be forever grateful that I had your love for 30 years. I cannot imagine how life would have been without your constant presence in my life as a child to adulthood. You taught me by example the importance grandparents play in the life of their grandchildren. You taught me one can never love a child too much and as I look back in hindsight I know that statement is very true. It is a wonderful gift you have given me as I carry that love and those memories within my heart and I know you are an angel sitting with God watching over me.

True

On so many levels.
I have superior research skills.

Why I Research and Record

Katherine Mary Gallagher 1973-2014

Yesterday was an extremely emotional day. It has been a very long time since I felt such emotion that went from sadness to anger back to sadness and finally depression. Today, I do not understand God. I suppose we are not meant to understand God. Katie is gone. Hopefully, she is at peace. It was so sudden. Friday night I was told she went into acute liver failure then kidney failure and by Sunday she was dead. When she was little I babysat her. I am 13 years older. Her Dad, my uncle Billy was special. As a little girl, he called me "butter cup". When my parents divorced and I lived with my grandparents I was surrounded by my uncles. Uncle Billy was in his thirties when he got married. Within a few years my cousin Billy and Katie were born. When I was a teenager I would babysit my younger cousins and play monopoly with my aunt until late in the evening. My uncle and aunt did not have it easy. When Midvale steel closed, it placed my uncles out of work. My uncle Billy would work for my parents, coca cola then the medical society. When my cousin Billy was 19 years old he was diagnosed with a brain tumor that was the size of a lemon. He was a patient at Temple Neurosurgery Intensive Care for a very long time. He lost his sight as a result. I remember sitting outside the operating room for 16 hours with my mother, aunt & uncle while Billy was being operated on. There were times when we thought he would not make it through the surgery and the weeks that followed. When my uncle was 65 years old, he retired. Shortly thereafter he would be diagnosed with multiple myeloma, cancer of the bone marrow. He would die within two years. His daughter, my cousin Katie, would go on to raise a child on her own, work her way through nursing school and battle her own demons. I was told my cousin drank too much rum and took too many Tylenol (chronic arm pain) which is a perfect combination for acute liver failure. By the time she was too sick to get out of bed she was in acute liver failure. When one's liver shuts down, death comes quickly.




I believe in heaven and I believe that those who left this earth before us come back to open their arms to those who are ready to leave this earth behind and enter heaven. I believe my uncle Billy opened his arms to Katie and I believe that my grandparents and brother stood beside them. Some people would say this is a fairy tale belief. I say, there is a God and we are accompanied to heaven.

My cousin Katherine Mary Gallagher died today. She was 41 years old.

Drafts

I began the process of taking 1157 posts out of draft and republish them. I have a total of 2243 posts which I placed 1157 of them back in draft. I am hoping to have all the drafts back in "publish" status in a week. The drafts will be republished under their original post dates.


Up until last week, my blog was taken out of the "search engine" so that it was not easily accessible. It is back online across the board. Welcome New Comers.

Sitting here drinking my coffee watching the dawn arise listening to the birds sing their morning songs. I was told via in route to the shore last night my cousin was in the hospital dying. DYING. I think I may still be in shock. She is 41 years old. She is my uncle Billy's daughter. She lays in an ICU bed on a ventilator with acute liver and kidney failure. My aunt signed a "Do not resuscitate order" because there is no hope for survival. WTH! What is God's name has happened?  What is it about summer deaths in my family? My grandmother died July 30, 1990. My uncle Billy died July 14, 1996. my brother died June 29, 1997.

Lies Lies Lies

Why did she tell me she wanted a divorce because she was unhappy after all these years and make a point of telling me she did not have a boyfriend? I wonder why people believe they can get away with lies because lies always catch up to the liars. (my opinion) I guess it is hard to admit you have had a boyfriend since January and by March decided it was time to leave your husband but stay until June before you actually move out. When someone behaves in this manner I am reminded by a statement I have heard others say. "Clean your own side of the street before you attempt to clean someone's else's side of the street". Once again, I took this person's side and believed what she told me? (Seems to be a terrible habit of mine lately) It never occurred to me that I was being lied to. Well. Fuck Me. I was lied to once again by someone whom I thought I had a close relationship. Live and Learn. Another chapter closed. This past year could be known as the year I did some personal housekeeping. I began to remove toxic people from my life whether they were family or friends. I began to take the blinders off and see people for what they truly were. It has been refreshing and liberating to say the least. I also began to appreciate the people who were supportive caring loving without conditions. It is amazing how confident one can become once they have started a personal inventory. My only concern with all these experiences is whether or not I will ever fully trust and/or allow anyone else close to me. I will be welcoming a new grandchild into my life this December. I wonder if my experiences will influence how I grandparent this new child? I wonder if I will give this child my entire heart or will I fear giving this child my entire heart because I will be afraid I could be hurt? 


Funny that I would write this and answer my own question in the meantime. I will love this grandchild as much as I love Shaun, Nikolas and Ava. That is who I am.

Onward

His father and I surprised him yesterday for his birthday. He did not know we were coming up to see him. The wide smile on his face was well worth it. He is ok. Making the best out of a terrible situation. He is reading, working out and helping others. He looks well.


Our family continues to navigate this new road in our lives. The road has many pot holes however I believe that God has a bigger purpose and in the end we will look back on this road and recognize that purpose.


In the meantime, we will travel onward. And by the grace of God and the kindness and support of those close to us, we will somehow survive.

Books Sent to an Avid Reader

Keeping a Running List of Books Shipped out since April 2014

• The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger)
• Needful Things (King)
• Deadspawn ( Lumley)
• Talisman (King)
• Patient Zero (Maberry)
• The Wolf of Wall Street (Belfort)
• Deadspeak  (Lumley)
• A Guide to Recognizing your Saint (Montiel)
• The Princess Bride (Goldman)
• Of Mice & Men (Steinbach)
• Lord of the Flies (Golding)
• The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
• The Last Aerie (Lumley)
• NA Big Book
• The Tsar (Radzinsky)
• Ghost Road Blues (Maberry)
• Just for Today (NA)
• Salem's Lot (King)
• Twelve Years a Slave (Northup)
• The Boys in the Boat; Nine Americans in the 1936 Berlin Olympics (Brown)
• The Racketeer (Grisham)
• Blood Brothers (Lunley)
• Assassin's Code (Maberry)
• Blood Wars (Lumley)
• Code Zero (maberry)
• Dead Man's Song (maberry)

Happy 31st Birthday Son

We Did a Lot of This

It Is the Weekend

Saturday

Evidence that kids were in the home.

Love that my family can just pop in at anytime.

Sunday

Do you think we like candles?

A Genealogist Records Everything

Just came in from my morning bike ride. I love riding the bike at the shore. Everyone is so friendly in the neighborhood and we wave to say "hello". I thought I could get the boys to ride with me however they like to sleep in so I went off on my own.

Meanwhile last night we had family time;

This morning someone fell asleep on the floor instead of his bed upstairs.

Shore house supplies when the grandpoles come to visit.

I believe my Dad placed these cuties in my garden when I was away.

Last week pictures;

And a visitor at work.

Table by the door.

Pictures of my grandchildren as babies, picture of my parents, trusty old lamp, a basket to throw my mail and keys and a portrait of a girl which was a gift from my Mom because she said it resembled my granddaughter.

What's in your China Cabinet?

Prayer of Our Lady of Knock purchased in Knock, Ireland.

 Millennium Lenox Angel which was a gift from my parents Christmas 1999. The cross hanging from the angel was found in an antique shop in Gettysburg.

Crystal rosary beads from Ireland.

 I call this my "Ava" corner. These were things she took out of the china cabinet and played with. The blue glass shoe on the left used to be my grandmother's Anna Marie McCaffery Gallagher). I bought that blue glass shoe and gave it to my grandmother when I was a child. It became mine when she died in 1990 and I will cherish it forever.

 I was left my maternal grand mom's (Anna Marie McCaffery Gallagher) china as well. The bronze stature was from my grand mom's casket. Her casket had these statures on all four corners.

The Lenox angel was a gift from a friend. The silver goblets are from my wedding. The Lenox glasses were purchased by me. The music box was a gift I bought for my granddaughter "Ava" which I will hold onto until she is older. It plays "You are my sunshine", a song Bill sang to her often as a baby as he rocked her in his arms.

Our Lady of Knock was given to me by a friend many years ago.

The things that hang on the wall surrounding the China Cabinet.

 A painting of my paternal grandmother in 1933. She was 27 years old. Her name was Marie Schroeder Weleski and she was born in Milwaukee Wisconsin in 1906. She would never grow old as she died shortly after giving birth in 1945 at the age of 38 years old. I am really glad this painting was handed down to me.

I purchased this painting in a portrait gallery in New Hope.