Page 37 - Always Virginia

Always Virginia 25

our local barber. I was taken by my Daddy, and on the way home
stopped by my Aunt Mag’s [Margaret Day-Stelbrink, my Daddy
Bart’s only sister] to show her and my paternal grandmother [Mary
Lynch-Day] who lived with her. They both cried as did my maternal
grandmother [Honorah Anastasia McDonough-Lawler] when I got
home and showed her. My, I was proud of my new “wind-blown
bob,” and no more tangles.
My maternal grandmother, Grandma Lawler [Honorah], after
whom Norine was named, died of a stroke at our home in April,
1924, when I was five years old and in first grade. I remember the
neighbor coming over to our little school, which was just across
the street, to get us. She remained unconscious for three days at
our home because there was no hospital in this little town. I can
always remember the death rattle for that period of time. My
paternal grandmother, Grandma Mary Lynch Day died the next
year in June, 1925, at age 80 years and 4 days. My maternal grand-
mother, Grandma Honorah McDonough Lawler, was 63. I believe
my paternal grandmother had a stroke also. Grandma Lawler was
buried in St. Louis and Grandma Day in Michael, Illinois, a town
of about 25 where she was married and all her children baptized.
We used to go often to visit her grave and the grave of my
grandfather, Bartholomew Day, born in Ireland, about 1824, who
I never saw because he died in 1903 when my Daddy was a boy of
sixteen. My Daddy’s father was much older than his mother, my
grandma, Mary Lynch Day. My grandfather Bartholomew came
from Ireland in 1868. When he was about forty years old and ready
to marry around 1870, he traveled from Hamburg to St. Louis
where he was introduced to Mary Lynch who was born at the start
of the Potato Famine in 1844. She was from Waterford, was twenty
years younger, and had a twin sister who, I think, stayed in Ireland.
Our only relative remaining in Kampsville was my Aunt Mag.
Her husband, Uncle “Cap” (Casper Stelbrink), was twenty years
older and very crabby, and they were quite wealthy. When I was
twelve, Aunt Mag took care of us five when my Mom had to have