Reads Poems

Family

I grew up in the midst of 50 or so first cousins dristributed between the families of my mother (Conlin) and father. Two of my mother's seven sisters became nuns the others married men named: Conlin women married men named Bennett, Crawford, Heintz, McCabe, and Walsh; my father's two sisters married men named Hall and Barry!

Matt and me at sea

Nephew Matthew was born the same month as me, as was dear Aunt Fran Conlin, and we have sought some manner of November celebration since Martha died in 2012. New wrinkle this year is the kindness of cousin Carol Read, who gave us use of Cooper* Cottage in Falmouth. With such proximity to Martha’s Vineyard, how could we resist a sea voyage on the last Saturday of November? We couldn’t, here’s proof, at the cellular** level, of this year’s blowout:

*The cottage is in a little neighborhood of streets named for American authors. James Fenimore Cooper set much of his novel The Pathfinder in dear old Oswego, my hometown.

*pictures made via cellular telephone – hope you weren’t expecting some deep philosophical malarkey here?