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| Pictures of the Mind 2009 Jean Ann English Madden |
“Imagine” Mother said one morning as we sat on her shady patio in Green Valley Arizona. And she told this story.
She told of how she, just five, was left alone to care for her little sister. Her father dead, her mother, out of necessity, working to support the three of them. It is true that her mother’s sister lived downstairs in the duplex that was their home, and so not really all alone. Aunt Maggie was there to keep an eye on them. Mother told how some days she was given a nickel or a dime and instructed to go down the block to the grocery store on the corner and buy something for their lunch. She told how she would hold her little sister’s hand, walk to the store and buy a little cake.
“Can you imagine being left alone like that," she asked so softly, so sadly.
I can't imagine such a thing, can you?
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| Jewel (JuJu) and Mary Agnes (May) Geraghty |
John Geraghty passed away in Nov 1897 at the age of 33 of consumption, leaving his widow with three small daughters. After the death of Angella, Mary returned to work...not to the Ryan Hotel where she had been the head of housekeeping before her marriage, but instead taking up nursing of the ill and elderly, a job that often took her away from her children. They could be found with grandparents and other relatives when she was away.
Aunt Maggie was the sister of Mary Walsh Geraghty. She had married William Hagerty on 7 May 1895 in St. Paul and by 1897 had a son and another child on the way. In 1900 the Hagerty's were renting 539 Partridge St., the second flat had been let to another family. That year May and JuJu are listed in the census with their Geraghty grandparents. Whether they were living at that address in 1897 when May was five is unknown.
Pictures of the Mind: My Mother - 2009 Jean Ann English Madden - A compilation of stories about Mary Agnes Geraghty English.
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| Geraghty Tombstone Calvary Cemetery St. Paul, Minnesota |
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