Memories of Sally Michael Carom, (1921 - 2000)

Basketball

June 30, 2023

Mom I will always remember being able to see you clearly in a crowd of 3,000 people at the IUP basketball games. I SWEAR YOU SEEM TO YELL THE LOUDEST.
Anyone reading this should know that you and Dad traveled around Western and North Western Pennsylvania to watch just about every game I ever played in. I played for me but I always love the fact that you and the rest of the family seem to enjoy it. Of course the highlights of you coming to all my games home or away or the two or three shopping bags full of food that you would bring. My teammates and roommates much appreciated that too. Some of our more non-ethnic friends at school didn't understand the food you were bringing me, our Lebanese food. And Mike McGuire will still tell the story today at age 73 that I tricked him into thinking that the turkey you brought me was something called White liver that only Lebanese people ate. And of course after I'd eaten it I had to let him know what a fool he was. My teammates and roommates always liked seeing you and Dad and the girls. It wasn't always a great time of life for me although some of it was but it was so comfortable knowing that I would see you and you would be there. Love you Mom.

Your birthday 2020

June 19, 2020

You wouldn't believe what is going on right now in this country and around the world as I write this.
This morning the sisters and I were talking a little about your yard and garden at Race St. I told them I do zinnias every year bc of you but that I had given up on the straw flowers which didn't do well for me.
I have a new couple as customers who live in Thomas and love it up there. I'm ready to take a trip back there .I know Aunt Ginny would love to go back but as the years roll by it becomes less and less likely. She travelled last year with Patrick on a 3-4 day trip for the little reunion dinner we had.And this morning I told Diane i'm looking for a sfe place to stay near Boston in the Fall so we can visit her and see Christina who starts at BU in August. You'd be so proud of her. And Alison would make you very proud as well and I'd love it if you had known Taylor too. These 3 girls are so important to me.Listen I want to get some pictures on this site and then share it again with your family. And though i don't have much I will be making a scrapbook of the Michael clan and getting it to the church archival room. Love you Mom.Just stating this and writing to you is a sad but comforting thing to me. I sure wish you could know how much you are loved.

West Virginia

June 30, 2018

Most people alive today wouldn't know how much you cared for your life and memories of Thomas ,WV.It seems your family liked it a lot too as Aunt Mary,Aunt Ginny and your Uncle Tom have visited before.Your birthplace, Uniontown,didn't seem to hold you the same way.I remember the week you Evan and I went to stay a few days in Canaan ,Diane staying behind a few days at work.You had described the town of Thomas so well to me that it was like I had been there before though it was my first time.

The trees so thick and close to town,the railroad tracks running parallel to the main Street.The row of buildings that made up the town opening to the tracks.

When,blind with macular degeneration,you described in detail the building you lived in with your family and its location on the street,I found it and parked my car at the curb.

You stayed in the car while 7 yr old Evan and I walked between the narrow space between your building and the one next to it,to the back porch and pushed open the door to enter where you lived 50 years earlier.

Ev was afraid we'd get arrested for B&E.We walked down a long wide hallway with big rooms on either side to the front kitchen.There a 1940 calendar hung on the wall.

The apartment had obviously been occupied for a time but was under what appeared to be a stalled renovation.It had a 1940s feel to it.Wood GCMurphy-like floors,big doors to each bedroom.I don't recall a living roo.

We only stayed 5minutes but it really was like a time machine inside that big apartment.

I remember you telling me how you and a school age Ginny stayed there after your parents went to live in Uniontown bc Situ needed to be near doctors.

How you went to the hotel for breakfast each morning before walking Ginny to school and then opening Gidu's,left in your care.

I wish to remember more but can't today.But I remember that day and how close I felt to you there.I miss that.

I wish I could believe Evan was with you now.Love you ,Mom.

February 9, 2015

One of my best childhood memories was living in our cute house in Garden Grove...the phone would ring and it would be Aunt Sally...we would yell for Mom to hurry up and get the phone..they would talk for hours..it created excitement for the whole family. I loved hearing her voice, I can still hear it today..

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