My father’s mother was born on this day, although I’m unsure of the year. Perhaps 1901 or 1902. She was born in Austria, soon to emigrate to the US and a better life working as a child laborer in a shoe factory in southern New Tork state. Her older brother died of the one of the diseases that was common in the early years of the 1900s. The family had not paid their pew rent for some time, choosing instead to feed the children before they went off to their jobs. The Catholic church to which they belonged did not approve of that prioritization and refused to provide a funeral mass or to bury my great uncle in the church cemetery. That was when the sliver of my family that had been Catholic severed their ties with the church. My grandmother, however, valued the spiritual connection she derived from the church and kept up a lifelong, albeit informal, relationship with the church, rarely talking of it, only occasionally mentioning a lunch with the monsignor.

My great-grandfather died at some point during my grandmother’s childhood. His brother graciously married his widowed sister-in-law and took over responsibility for his brother’s family. I’ve always imagined that there was something more than familial obligation that caused that union to take place, although I never met any of these relatives. My mother’s family had a similar situation, although in that case the father/husband ran off with the Irish maid and his brother’s wife looked askance at her husband taking on her philandering, abandoning brother-in-law’s duties.

Music: Martha Wainwright, Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole. The title of the CD is not displayed on the case and the same-named song is bleeped out in the song list. The Wainwright family reminds me that there is always someone more dysfunctional than me.

Spamfiction: Never allow revenge or animosity to influence your conduct. Men may threaten, but they can not injure you, so you must remember that they do not possess your mighty advantages, and that, because of your strength, you
should bear with them patiently. Rob examined the garment with much curiosity.