Does It Matter that ‘I Remember Mama’ Told Some Lies?

So I never called my mother “Mama” – we called her “Mum” – but the title of this post is also the title of her favorite movie, a 1948 drama about a Norwegian-American family in the early 20th century. My mother loved this film in all its hazy hardworking glory. Her affection led me to […]

Meet Our New Foster Kittens: The #FayetteFive

Five little kittens in a collage

Let me set the stage. Four years ago on May 8, 2019, we ‘plucked’ an orange fluff ball from our backdeck. The next day, we were accepted as a kitten foster home by Pittsburgh CAT and over the next five days, trapped the entire litter – all five of them. You may remember then as […]

I am a person who had a mother. And now I don’t.

JIm Pryor

The 1950 Census has been made public and I recently found my 1942-born mother living with her parents and siblings in Munhall. She was seven at the time the census taker visited. It is the first official proof I have from her “permanent record” – she was a little girl living with her family, her […]

My 2x Great Grandmas Speak To Me On Mother’s Day

Irish American Pittsburgh

While I can say they had their moments, it is more accurate to state that my mother and grandmothers were not cut out to have or raise children. Mostly, this is not their fault but the consequence of being surrounded by traumatized, abusive men and cold parents of their own. Mother’s Day like too many […]