Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Tombstone Tuesday-Sister Mary Patrick McCarry

Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament Cemetery (Bensalem, Bucks, Pennsylvania),  Sister Mary Patrick McCarry marker, St. Elizabeth's Convent, photo by Florence McCarry Hutton, 2015.

On Saturday, 3 Oct 2015, I had lunch with my mother's first cousin, Florence McCarry Hutton, along with her daughter in law and her granddaughter. We had a great time looking at photos and telling and listening to stories. In the process I talked about the information I had found for the sister of Florence's grandfather, my great grandfather, James Francis McCarry. Florence said she would like to visit the convent and see her grave. It turned out that her daughter took her the following week and I received this photo after their visit. I have now put this on her Find A Grave page. I was very happy to have it. I talked about how finding Mary's entry into the convent led me to some other information in this previous post, The Story of Miss Mary McCarry. I have since acquired Mary's death certificate:

Pennsylvania Department of Health, death certificate No73837 (1932), Mary McCarry (Sister Mary Patrick); Office of Vital Statistics, New Castle, Pennsylvania
I have the remembrances of my grandmother talking about going to visit Sister Mary at the convent and the written remembrances from another cousin of my mother's of them visiting "Aunt Mame" with the entire family. She said: " When we were children, many years ago, the families would rent cars (we had none) and go from South Philadelphia up to Cornwell Heights on many a 'visiting day'. ...The times we visited Aunt Mame the Nuns would take us to the Convent kitchen and give us milk (right from the cows) and cookies." citation: Catherine G. Selfridge-O'Connor (deceased) to Rita Selfridge Walker, family letter, 15 Mar 1987; privately held by Jennifer Selfridge Biggs, 2014. The late Mrs. O'Connor was a grand niece of Sister Mary Patrick McCarry. love having these stories.


No comments:

Post a Comment