Bits of Yarn, Calico and Velvet Scraps                                                            Page 2

PARENTS

My father - a vivid memory of care and fun,

fairness and warmth. He really loved and even

liked us kids. He was as Irish as all-get-out/ from a

family of heroes - the heroic was there - Irish

fighters for Irish freedom! One brother executed

by the British, for high treason, at the age of 19,

my father being 17 at the time and in the Irish

Army himself, along with six of his brothers.

All the heroes I knew about then were men. I

didn't think that was strange.

Now, I wonder about my grandmother, whom I

never knew, the mother of these boy heroes. It was

her blood nourished them in her womb.

At hard times in my life I have strengthened myself

with the knowledge that the blood of courage runs

in my veins. Is this my father's blood or my

grandmother's blood?