One spring my Mom, Gina, Annie and I drove to Maryland to visit the McKennas.  We stopped in New York to pick up Aunt Grace who was going to "help" Mom with the driving - that's another story!  Of course we also stopped to visit Aunt Eileen who gave us treats for the trip - chocolates, cookies, doughnuts and the biggest bag of black jelly beans I have ever seen in my life!  We put the bag between us in the back seat and dug into the bag up to our elbows - I was in my glory!!  I will always think of Aunt Eileen when I eat black jelly beans xoxo.

Our wedding gifts from Aunt Eileen were two beautiful handmade afgans - one pink and one green.  Eileen told me that she made them so Jake and I could stay warm during the cold New Hampshire winters.  She also made it clear that the pink was for me and the green was for Jake - I think she wanted to make sure we didn't share:)  She was right - they do keep us warm, but we have to share them...with Maggie and Emma...never with eachother.  It just wouldn't seem right.

      Eileen was always there for the most important moments of my life, both the happiest and saddest and everything in between. My First Communion felt even more important because she came "all the way from Queens" to see me in my white dress holding my carnation bouquet. She knitted blankets for my babies and later my grandbabies in every color of the rainbow. If I brought a baby and a carriage to a family event that Ei was attending, you could count on not seeing either the baby or the carriage for awhile. Scary at first but we all got used to it..... There were the special tutoring sessions....The proud look on her face when I spotted her in the hallways of St.Joseph's my freshman year. Then there was the night she drove to our house in New Jersey in July 1972 just before I entered the hospital to deliver Brynn. That was the night she told me, as gently as she could, that my Dad only had months to live because the cancer had come back. I was distraught but she stayed with us for the week, taking care of Josh in Mom's place. Only later did I realize she was grieving just as hard as all of Dad's "girls.".... But she showed me, and all of us, how to carry on... and that is one of the most important things you need to learn in life.

Here's a story from my mom about Eileen... Eileen was in a convent in Rego Park, the day Mom and Dad were married at the9:00 am Mass at St. Bartholomew's. At that time, nuns weren't allowed to attend weddings, and Eileen was determined she wasn't going to miss "Junior's" wedding day.  So the bride, groom, bridal party, including MumMum, Dada Mike, Dot and Bub, drove to the convent in Rego Park.  Upon arrival they were served a delicious wedding breakfast and then after eating, the Mother Superior, who hadn't posed for a picture in over 50 years, gathered all the nuns together for a wedding photo in front of the Blessed Mother's statue, with the bride in the middle, and no "Junior"!  Mom's wedding dress was a long, white dress with a high Peter Pan collar and long sleeves...Mom looked like one of the angels.  They visited for a while and then had to head back to the wedding reception, but as they drove off another nun's sister who was married on the same day, arrived for her wedding visit.   Eileen later told Mom that the Mother Superior wouldn't have anything to do with the other wedding party because the other bride's dress wasn't "angelic-like" enough for her.  Needless to say, Sister Joel reigned again! This was dictated to me by Mom!