MEMORIES PT5

I was the first of Aggie’s grandchildren, but my cousin Wiinnie was only a few 
months younger than I. Then my sister Cheryl was born when I was five, and 
cousin Richie around the same time. Finally another cousin, “Little Eddie”, 
came along so there were five cousins living at 37 Beach St.

Uncle Eddie, Aunt Emily and Winnie

Cheryl and her godparents, Gaetano Cappodana and Anna Bruno

Aunt Emily,Winnie, Bobbie McCue, Richie, Mom & I

Cheryl & I

Winnie, Richie, and Eddie

My grandmother had suffered from rheumatic fever as a child and as a result
had a rheumatic heart. This was making it more and more difficult to negotiate 
the stairs up to the second floor where she lived with us. Then one night we 
went to visit two of her cousins, Mary Carr and Lizzie Sampson. I think the
house we went to belonged to the Sampsons. It was in a neighborhood in 
Boston and the entrance way was sunken, a few steps below street level. 
As we were leaving that night, the Sampson’s dog came bounding out and 
knocked Nana over from behind, and she broke her nose in the fall.
Shortly afterward her health began to deteriorate. I remember the oxygen
tank in her bedroom which was in the front of the house. She died on 12Feb 
1957.

Our grandmother Agnes McFarland White

The irony was that my parents had sold their half of the house to Uncle Ed 
and Aunt Emily. The plan was that we’d move someplace where my
grandmother wouldn’t have to climb stairs. Mom used to say that if they had 
not made the decision to move before Aggie died we’d have still been living
there on Beach St.

Not long after we moved out my Aunt and Uncle sold the house and bought a 
single family home in Arlington.

We moved to the Dorchester neighborhood in Boston and an apartment at 
101 Capen St.

((289 words))

Written for the Family History Writing Challenge