Casting Off

LINEAGE:

Michael Gorman Ellen Quinlan
to
Mary Margeret Deliah


John Lynch Deliah Gorman
to
Mary Elizabeth Margetta Helen


John Lewis Helen Lynch
to
Patrica


James Richards Patricia Lewis
to
Jo Ellen Jennifer Ann Jame Lynn



Frances Hannigan Jame Richards
to
Grace Helena Frances Mae

There you have it.
My female line.

Ellen Quinlan had three daughters.
Youngest daughter, Deliah, had three daughters.
Youngest daughter, Helen, had one daughter.
Only daughter, Patricia, had three daughters.
Youngest daughter, Jame, has two daughters,

A line born in County Clare, Ireland
in the 1860' progresses to America
2000+.

Few stories about my grandmother, Deliah survive:

She came to America at sixteenl.
Married and raised her children
in the tenements of New Jersey.
Was a widow at forty.

She cast off her life on November 13, 1933,
five years before I was born.

She remains our "Matriarch."

Today I'm knitting a hat
of a dark hue...
with bright flecks
of yellow and red.

A moody yarn...
changeable: it shifts
from gray to blue.

Small in size,
short it length,
it bears its gift.

Will become an heirloom.