Philadelphia

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! Thanks!!

July 1, 2008 by HughE Dillon 4 Comments

We had a lot of kids in our family. One of those blended families. Mom married dad when I was nine. Believe it or not, I took this picture of Granpop L walking mom down the aisle.

SO the ages in the household were 11, 9, 8, 8, 7, 6, (and crista not born yet) . Christmas in our house was a big production, in fact every holiday, birthday and death of a pet was a big production.

Mom always had sliced apples and grapes ready for us to grabbed when we came home from school (to give us the energy to sweep the sidewalk, feed the dogs or go out and play kick ball, I chose the latter the most.) Dinner was at 5PM, ’cause after working all day long, dad would have to go back to work on some nights just to make enough money to pay for our braces. My brother and I would get to spend every Wednesday night with mom, either shopping, having banana splits at the Cherry Hill Mall Woolworth’s or going to the arcade. Mom plays a mean game of air hockey.
Dad continued to work hard so he could pay for my 5 sisters weddings, ’cause when you have FIVE sisters, that’s a lot of weddings to pay for (plus mom likes to shop.) Mom was always there taking care of us, raising us, and occassionally raising a open hand to smack us if we got out of line. It’s true that nice women on the left who looks like one of my sisters, has a mean Sicilian slap in her, but it was better than that Irish anger Mom’s punishment didn’t work. Eventually mom learned that just making me sit in a chair in the dining room for an hour or making me stay in my boring bedroom worked much better, I like to talk, so isolation was a worse punishment. Dad died doing what he loved second to his family, after a long fishing day. That was 4 years ago (see 4/13/08 entry). Here’s Mom and Dad in 2003, at Mom’s other big birthday.Mom always made time for the girls, and they are all really close. (2006)Two years ago the last one got married, Crista. (2006) Mom with my sister Crista’s son, Michael, their pride and joy. They say he looks like me, but he has more hair. Happy Birthday Mom, and thanks. (2008)P.S. My sister Judy, and her husband Walt at Crista’s wedding. Keep her in your thoughts as we got more bad news today. (She and her husband have one of the great love affairs and set a good example for their kids, just like my mom and dad)