My Nana, Lillian Cassidy, was a sweet and modest lady. Born to Irish immigrants, Annie and Michael Geagan, she was one of 7 children (6 girls and a boy) in Charlestown, MA. Their family struggled with money through the great depression and her father had a violent temper and a drinking problem which made it difficult to find steady work. She told the story several times of walking with her mother and one of her sisters to their landlords house in Boston's North End. Their landlord, an Italian woman with Polio, could not get downstairs in her apartment because of her disease and would send down her niece to collect. If the Geagan's did not have the rent that month or asked for an extension, the woman would forgive them. She knew how hard life was for them. When she died, she told her niece who inherited the property to never evict the Geagan family. My grandmother and her sisters never forgot this woman's generosity. Without it, the future of their family would have been severely jeopardized. Although they never had much money, they repayed this woman with the best currency they had, their utmost faith. After she died, my grandmother and her sisters attended more than 50 memorial masses to pray for their Italian landlord. A remarkable story and testament of their loyalty and faith.
My grandmother died peacefully at age 90. She still lived at home. She had outlived one of her own children and lived long enough to know her seven grandchildren and three great grandchildren. She was a woman who delighted in the simple pleasures of life - sitting on the porch on a nice evening, a cup of tea with her sisters, a game of bingo. She was always so grateful for a visit and always had a smile for us. Never one of too many words, she was a woman of devout faith. Most of her explanations for things circled back to her Catholic roots - God has a plan, We will have our reward in Heaven etc.
She belonged to St. Joseph Parish for most of her life, sending her 4 kids to the parish school. It is the same one J attends now. Sometimes I feel her warm smile when we sit in those pews.
Last week my dear childhood friend asked me to be her daughter's Godmother. I am touched and honored that my friend considered me for this special privilege. The baby's name is Lillian ~
(photo of Cork Ireland, birthplace of my Geagan great grandparents)
