Mother
There is something both grounding about trying to know a person outside of the role they played in your life. For me, my mother was always just that, my mother. The one whose life seemed to begin the moment mine did. But now, through the pieces she left behind, I am beginning to meet her as a young woman, separate from me with her own world, her own choices, her own becoming.
She was born, raised, and lived her entire life on the same street in Concord, New Hampshire. There is something deeply rooted in this unwavering sense of place. One street that held her childhood, her courtship, her marriage, and her life as a mother. She did not wander far in miles.
What I am discovering is not dramatic or complicated, something quieter. She loved her family. She loved my father. She loved her home and her state. And she loved her faith, not as something spoken loudly, but as something ever present. These were not just parts of her life they were the framework of it.
As I look at her young adult years, I can see the decisions she made, the choices to stay, to build, and to commit. I am beginning to understand that the life I experienced did not just happen. It was created by the woman she already was.
It is easy to overlook this. To assume that our parents always existed as we view them, rather than recognizing that they became who they were long before we arrived.
My mother may never have left this street in Concord, but through her, I was given the courage to explore far beyond it.
The greatest influence in my life was not just the mother who raised me, but the young woman who chose the life that made me possible.
-Nancy Watson
Recent Posts
Another Wartime Wedding
Among my mother’s papers is another wedding announcement from the World War II years. The envelope is addressed simply to “Miss Hannigan,” my mother before her marriage, and inside Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Goings announce the marriage of their daughter, Dorothy Irene, to Mr. Leonard Field Hubbard on Saturday, November 21, 1942, in Newport, New […]
A Wedding Reception at Home
Another invitation my mother saved takes us to October 10, 1942, when Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Henderson invited guests to the wedding reception of their daughter, Edith Louise, and Mr. C. William Blakey. The reception was to begin at 12:30 in the afternoon at the Henderson family home at Seven Lake Street in West Concord, […]
A Wartime Wedding
Among my mother’s papers was this simple wedding invitation, addressed to her by her maiden name, Miss Mary Hannigan. It immediately places the document before she met and married my father, making it a small but meaningful glimpse into her own life during World War II. The invitation announces the marriage of Frances Gladys Murphy […]
Weddings in a Time of War
Among my mother’s keepsakes is another wedding invitation from the years of World War II. This one is addressed not only to Mary Hannigan but also to Mrs. Hannigan, her mother. That small detail immediately paints a picture of my mother’s life in 1943. She was still living at home in Concord, New Hampshire, sharing […]
A Note of Gratitude
Among my mother’s keepsakes is this small handwritten note, dated June 6, 1949. At first glance, it appears to be an ordinary thank-you card. It preserves one of the happiest occasions in the ordination and the celebration of a First Mass. The note was written to my mother, Mary Watson, thanking her for including the […]
A Wartime Marriage
This is the marriage certificate of my parents, Roger Edward Watson and Mary Elizabeth Hannigan. They were married on May 3, 1944, at Saint John the Evangelist Church in Concord, New Hampshire, while my father was home on leave during World War II. My father came from West Virginia, while my mother had grown up […]
Birth Certificate of Mary Hannigan
Birth certificates tell us when a life begins, but they often tell us much more than that. This certificate records the birth of my mother, Mary Hannigan, on October 14, 1919, in Concord, New Hampshire. She was the first child of James and Margaret Hannigan, both immigrants from Ireland who had married just three years […]
A Glimpse of My Mother at Fourteen
A ChildNovember 14, 1936 Among my mother’s papers was this handwritten school assignment, completed when she was fourteen years old. The poem, titled A Child, received the handwritten comment “Splendid” from her teacher, along with the date, November 14, 1936. I was struck not only by her beautiful penmanship but also by the values expressed in […]
Walker Lectures
The Walker Lectures were one of the most enduring cultural and educational traditions in Concord, New Hampshire. What makes them remarkable is that they were not a short-lived lecture series but a community institution that has continued for over a century. The series began in 1896, established through a charitable fund created by members of the […]
The Beautiful Hands of a Priest
This is the kind of paper that was never meant to be thrown away. Tucked among my mother’s things, it is worn, folded, and softened by time. At the top, typed simply, are the words: “The Beautiful Hands of a Priest.” There is no author, just the poem itself. The poem was passed down orally in Ireland, […]
My Mother: Salutatory Speech
My mother graduated high school second in her class, earning the honor of delivering the salutatory address. She was just sixteen years old. As I explored the papers she left behind, I came across the beginning of that speech, written carefully in her own cursive, each word formed with intention, preserved across time on a page she once […]
Concord College of Business
How better to come to know my mother, before she was my mother, than through the papers she left behind. In them, I begin to see who she was becoming—the thoughts she carried, the paths she chose, and the quiet decisions that would one day shape my own life. When I look at this certificate dated […]
