A Million Little Pieces Of My Mind

My dad's youngest sister, Gene McGirr, had an adult daughter with a husband and a child of their own, my cousin Mike. (Since I was very young, I pronounced that "co'n Mike", which my mom continued to call him even after I was grown and had kids of my own.

Back in the '50s, every visit from out of town was an excuse to get the camera out of the closet to document the moment. In this next shot, we see my dad, holding a baby who can hardly be seen. This is the only photo I've found of my youngest sister, Dorothy Gene, who died of what they used to call "crib death" a little more than a year later.

Here are Don McGraw, his wife and my cousin Rosemary, and their firstborn, Mike. (This was the kid I called "Co'm Mike" when I was 3, and which my Mom would remind me until she died 50 years later.)

This next photo includes my (step) grandmother, so my grandfather must have been present. He probably took these photos, as they look (to me) like they came from his camera (which I much later inherited). That means there was probably another photo of my dad holding Dorothy Gene, that my mom destroyed after her baby died.

Mom is holding baby Louise; Mary Joan is in front, with cousin Mike between her and me on the right.

At possibly a different date, the brick background suggests that these last two photos (found in the same envelope as the previous ones) were taken at our grandparents' apartment building in Bloomfield. This is Mary Joan at 15 months old.