United States Citizenship (Jeanne)

Our dad was born in New Brunswick, Canada. He never became a U.S. citizen, relying on his "Resident Alien" status for the majority of his adult life in this country. He talked about becoming a citizen a LOT. Especially the last few years of his life when macular degeneration had pretty much wiped out his eyesight. He'd listen to audiobooks and think about things. He would often start a conversation with, "What were the thirteen original colonies?"

"I'm not sure, dad. New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, . . . Why?"

Apparently, he was practicing the information he thought he needed to know to pass the citizenship test. Sigh.

While going through his papers after his death, I came across an envelope with some old paperwok. It contained citizenship application papers. It was most recently revised in 1959! I'm not sure why he talked about it, thought about it, and even had relevant paperwork for five DECADES and never actually worked toward it. I wish I could ask him about it . . .

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Gum and Thriftiness and Pronunciation and Honesty (Jeanne)

Eileen was a very thrifty gal. She bought CareFree sugarless gum and would willingly share it. A half piece at a time. Seriously! Since gum loses its flavor relatively quickly, she thought it was wasteful to take an entire piece, no matter how long you would chew it. So she would tear the piece in half and hand it out as though it were a special treat. Even Jenifer remembers this about her! When her grandson Morgan was preschool age, he pronounced the word "Num." Grandma Eileen said, "Gum. G - g - g - g - gum. With a hard G. You say it." And Morgan said, "G - g - g - g - num!" It was hilarious! He wasn't doing it to be a stinker; he just had trouble with the word. But she kept trying! When Jeanne was five-ish years old, Eileen said "No" at the grocery store to buying her a pack of gum for herself. Jeanne took one and put all five sticks in her mouth while on the car ride home. Since she was dumb, the wrappers were all there in the bac...

A Dad Story: Memories Lost (Jeanne)

It has been two years since my dad died. (Today is 1.22.2018. He died on 1.21.2016.) In getting rid of scraps of paper in my life (de-cluttering; I'm not yet ready for Swedish Death Cleaning!), I found an old receipt with some notes on it. "broken hand" "Dr. Dumont" "St. Joseph nuns" "Campbellton" Google brought me here: St. Joseph Hospital - http://www.rhsj.org/en/former-apostolic-sites_382_-21.php Religieuses Hospitalieres de Saint-Joseph I can't find information on Dr. Dumont (not that I tried that hard . . . ) but here's what I remember of that conversation with my dad over two years ago (I don't have the best memory!). He was talking about bequests after my mom died. He wanted to send money to places that were meaningful to him - the convent where his sister, Sister Beatrice, served, for example. He also mentioned Dr. Dumont, who had fixed his "broken hand" when he was a kid. He said they couldn'...

Mom miscellany (Jeanne)

She used to always have a half-stick of Carefree sugarless gum. She would share, but you could only have a half-stick (torn in half). She was thrifty and knew that when it lost its flavor, we would spit it out. I don't really remember when she stopped chewing Carefree, but I vividly remember what a huge part of my childhood it was. She had such a sweet tooth! She loved desserts and treats so much. When we had fruit that was tart, she wanted to add sugar to it. She and Louie were so different that way! Louie loves tart fruit. When Stacie started bringing her homemade desserts to family gatherings, my mom's face would light up. Yum for desserts! She was more than willing to try weird foods (and expected us to give them a try, too). The beef tongue was disgusting! It looked gross (like a gigantic tongue) and tasted nasty. It was really hard to chew, too. She also made a pie one time and said, "Try it. It's apple." It didn't look like apple and she was being t...

Eileen and Larry Somers

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