Homestead

1906:  My Grandparents in front of their new home...

These are my grandparents, Elizabeth and Albert Fitzpatrick, standing outside the home they built as newlyweds. This is the same house my Mom grew up in, then my sisters and I, and even (briefly, for 1.5 years) my two kids, many years ago.

I am grateful to my cousin Delphine for sharing the photograph from my grandparents' 50th Wedding Anniversary collection. She told me:

I still remember the house after they built that porch on it that went around 2 sides of the house. We use to love to run around on that porch...

My great grandparents came first to St. Vincent - the Fitzpatricks and the Fitzgeralds.  Through marriage, my grandparents brought the two families together.  They built their first home together in the "farm district" (the image above shows them standing in front of it shortly after completion...)  After showing the photo to several people from the area, I received some informative feedback and memories, including this one from Mike Rustad:

Liz Fitzpatrick,
Practical Nurse 

Leona Gooselaw Hemmes...said that your Grandmother was a very therapeutic person, an excellent cook, and was a wonderful conversationalist. It was a good thing, too because women in her birthing facility stayed a minimum of six days and sometimes longer. Your grandmother, in Leona's words, was a wonderful woman who assuaged the fears and raised the hopes of mothers...

That definitely sounds like my Grandma. She loved people, having them around her, sharing a good meal with them, sharing good conversation and a laugh or two.