Today is February 1st and the day of my mother’s birth.
She was born in Belfast, County Antrim, Ireland in the year 1911 the youngest of eleven children.

Her father was a shipyard riveter and her mother was obviously well occupied at home although several children had died at early ages before my mother was born.
She emigrated to the United States shortly before her 19th birthday as she was employed as a “cutter of linen and cotton” and her future in Ireland was not one of much promise in those days.

She had an older sister Margaret who left Ireland for America, a nurse, who along with a brother Edward encouraged her to make the journey  which took 12 days on the SS Albertic to New York in late 1929.

Her first residence that I have recall of is in Lynnfield, Massachusetts where she was sponsored by an in-law to provide her with a residence in return for household duties and part of her wages which she would earn at General Electric as an operator (bulb molding).
She would later move to Boston and work at the Children’s Hospital (waitress) where I was later born.

In the picture above taken by my father I was probably in a carriage nearby as she plays with her friend Claire O’Connor’s dog Sean.  It would be Spring in the Boston Public Garden and a gathering place for those who had survived the struggles and challenges of WWII to once again feel the joy and pride of life in their new home for which they worked so hard to become citizens of.

Thank You for coming to America
Thank You for nourishing me in your womb
Thank you for the special moments in my life both good and bad
Thank You for reminding me today that you are never far away
Thank You for loving me more in this moment for who I Am

I honor you on this Eve of Imbolc as Brigid (or Bride as you called Her)… calls to me.
I answer you and She with an Opened Heart
Grateful for the lineage which dances through my veins
Having flowed forth from the Springs and Wells
Of Our Ancestors

May each of you be Blessed
whose hearts this has touched
May each of you now dance and flow
in Peace and Grace

~riverman