Wyman Elementary in Warwick was where I went from third to sixth grade. I loved my sixth grade teacher Mrs. Bomba. I took tap lessons there for a while. I wasn’t very happy in the playground because I always felt like the new kid, but I excelled in class and was in the accelerated program from the third grade.
Kathie Gagne died 4,645 days ago.
June 16th, 2002 @ 9:21 am
June 16th, 2002 @ 9:14 am
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- Auntie Olga
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- Auntie Gilda
The house looks almost the same. During the war, Papa sent money home to send Olga to hairdressing school, but one of her sisters stole it, and she never went. He also sent his mother and father enough money to buy the house. My grandmother was more grateful for the pillow (“mother” embroidered on it) that my other uncle sent from his tough billet in Hawaii during the war.
The top picture is Auntie Olga, Papa’s youngest and favorite sister. On the bottom is Auntie Gilda who never married and looks exactly like Papa. She took me to a Red Sox game on the train. Major Sox fan.
June 16th, 2002 @ 9:13 am
Mom’s caption: Scialo’s Bros. Bakery on Atwells Avenue – Sweet Stuff
June 16th, 2002 @ 8:49 am
I didn’t think Father Ray would fit in when he came to be pastor of St. Patrick’s, but he’s pretty cool and still there.
This is the ugliest Jesus I ever saw.
June 16th, 2002 @ 8:24 am
Sister Carol Mary Morrison lived with me at St. Patrick’s Convent. She holds a church office at St. Pat’s now and lives in the House of Faith. (The convent was originally called the House of Faith.) Rayleen lives there, too. She’s cool.
June 16th, 2002 @ 8:21 am
I met your dad in the basement of Holy Ghost Church. I was baptized there and Nana and Papa and later Uncle Dic got married there. It’s gorgeous inside.
“This was an old library that I really, really loved. You had to climb up into a dusty attic to get books. Evelyn lived on Atlantic Avenue, the street to the right.”
June 16th, 2002 @ 8:17 am
“I had First Communion and Confirmation at St. Peter’s Church. I loved the woman who sang “Oh Holy Night” every Christmas. I always felt as if I didn’t’ know enough about God because I didn’t go to the Catholic School there. Father Randall was the pastor — he sent me to Holy Ghost to go to a prayer meeting.”
June 16th, 2002 @ 8:00 am
Roger Williams Park — I spent a lot of time there and it still looks great. There was a wonderful carousel, a couple of historical museums, and lots of ducks. I spent a lot of time dreaming about being a writer in the two structures pictured here. Evelyn and I wrote about the Beatles and read Lennon’s books in the one on the right.
Sister Fran
Sister Fran was a nun that mom loved and admired very, very much. She died in early 2003. Mom was incredibly happy that Sister Fran got to meet me and my sister before she died.
On the occasion of Sister Fran’s death, mom wrote to a friend, “one of the real dreams of my life the last 15 years or so has been to see Fran and David and Jen in the same room. I so wanted them to get to know one another! I couldn’t really believe it was happening, but it was a gift I’ll treasure always.”
I am not 100% certain — and if someone else could confirm I would appreciate it — but I think that this is Sister Fran’s obituary (taken from this page):
CONWAY, Providence – Maria Frances Conway, RSM, 65, of Jewett Street, founder of the Mary House shelter on Smith Hill, and a member of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas for the Region of Providence for 48 years, died Monday in the Jane Brown building of Rhode Island Hospital. Born in Pawtucket, a daughter of the late John J. Conway Sr. and Mary F. (Fay) Conway, she entered the Sisters of Mercy on Sept. 8, 1954, in Cumberland. She professed her first vows on Aug. 16, 1957, and her final vows on Aug. 16, 1960. A 1954 graduate of the former Sacred Heart Academy in Pawtucket, she received her bachelor’s degree in 1960 from Mercy College of Education, in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., and her master’s in education in 1967 from Rhode Island College. She also had earned a lifetime certification in elementary education. Sister Fran began her teaching career in 1959, at the St. Mary School, in Bristol, then went on to the St. Mark School, in Cranston, where she taught for eight years. In 1968, she began a three-year stint as a reading specialist in the West Warwick School Department. In 1971 she became involved in the charismatic movement at St. Patrick Church, in Providence. In 1972, she founded Mary House, a shelter providing food and clothing for the poor and needy on Smith Hill. Sister Fran had been honored by many organizations, over the years — among others, by The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick of Capitol Hill, for her service to the poor; the University of Rhode Island, for her outstanding service to the needy; and the City of Providence and former Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr., for her years of community service to the city. “Aunt Betty,” as she was known to her siblings’ many descendants, is survived by two sisters, Barbara A. Frappier and Mary A. Catterall, both of Cumberland; a brother, James T. Conway of Cumberland; 31 nieces and nephews; and several grandnieces and grandnephews, great-grandnieces and great-grandnephews. She was a sister of the late John “Sonny” and John J. Conway, Margaret M. Lambert, Joan E. O’Neil and Frances M. Audette. A concelebrated Mass of Christian Burial will be said on Friday at 10 a.m. in the Mount Saint Rita Convent Chapel, 15 Sumner Brown Rd., Cumberland. A mercy prayer service will be conducted on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in St. Patrick Church, 244 Smith St., Providence. Burial will be in Resurrection Cemetery, Cumberland.
Providence RI Journal, Wednesday 12 Feb 2003