On Monday night, I was in the Adoration Chapel in Kilmovee for a short while and I said Night Prayer. When finished, I looked through some memorial cards and other pieces that were tucked into the back of my breviary. One of the pieces of paper I found was this:
It’s a map of Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn New York. On the reverse side are some details around care of graves and reference to Region 19 and Plot Numbers 131 and 132. The paper is well faded and written on the side of it “burial 8/1/1918”. It refers to the burial place of a Grand-Uncle of mine called Michael Healey who died two days earlier on the Feastday of The Epiphany. He fell victim to the Great Flu.
My aunt in Richmond told me about this grave in July 2009. I was in New York at the time and in the company of some friends from Kiltimagh who kindly took me to the Cemetery and, following my aunt’s directions, we were able to go to St Joseph’s section of the Cemetery, find Region 19 and plots 131/132. The inscription on the stone reads “In Memory Of My Beloved Brother Michael Healey Died Jan. 6. 1918.”
My mother’s mother, Margaret Healey (Healy), worked in New York at that time. Her brother became ill, died and she saw to it that he was laid to rest. I’m told that it would have been both meaningful and costly for her to place the headstone there at that time. I’m assuming she made great personal sacrifice to do this. Sometime later she returned to Ireland and, again I am assuming, did so to tell her parents about Michael and to reassure them she had seen to it that he was laid to rest with dignity. It was her intention to return to New York and she had purchased a return ticket. On her way home on the boat, my understanding is, she met and befriended a girl from Cloonloo who was my grandfather’s sister who, in turn, introduced her friend to her brother. They married and she never returned to New York.
She kept the piece of paper though and when her son (my uncle John) went to America he brought the piece of paper and the memory behind it with him. I feel certain he too visited Holy Cross Cemetery and, in time, he shared this story with his wife – Mary Margaret – who, in turn shared it – and the paper behind it, with me.
On February 26th, 2018, I found myself looking at this piece of faded paper – I honestly don’t remember getting it but my aunt must have given it to me at some stage. It takes me back a century to a man I never met and brought him into my Monday Night Prayers.
Lenten Thought: It’s good to do the right thing by your people and essential that the stories that matter be shared. We are telling a very sacred Family Story in this Season of Lent. It must not be allowed fall on closed ears. It must be told.