My Mother, Mary: The Foundation of My Life
This section must begin with my mother, Mary Hannigan. She was born on October 14, 1919,in Concord, New Hampshire , into a world very different from the one we know today. I was her third child and her second daughter, and from the very beginning her presence, love, and example became the foundation on which so much of my life was built.
My mother embodied strength in quiet ways. She carried with her a deep sense of faith, resilience, and devotion to her family. Her wisdom was not always in words, often it was in how she lived, how she carried herself through joy and hardship alike.
This photo shows my mother bringing me home for the first time, where I was lovingly welcomed by my older sister, Joyce, and my brother, Tom.
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My Daughters
There is nothing in my adult life that shaped me more than the birth of my daughters. There is simply nothing else that influenced the direction of my life and my goals as profoundly as becoming their mother. From the time of preconception, through the pregnancy, to their birds and all that followed once they arrived, […]
Marriage Certificate of James Hannigan and Margaret Dawson
Some family documents do more than record a moment in time—they mark the beginning of an entirely new story. This marriage certificate is one of those documents. On January 4, 1916, my grandparents, James Hannigan and Margaret Dawson, were married in Malden, Massachusetts. Both had been born in Ireland. Both had crossed the Atlantic seeking […]
A Two-Dollar Tax Bill
At first glance, this is hardly the kind of family keepsake anyone would expect to survive for more than a century. It is simply a tax bill from the City of Malden, dated 1916, notifying my grandfather, James Hannigan, that he owed two dollars in state and county taxes. Yet this small piece of paper […]
