Some Cousins: Sally Kearns, Pat Kearns, Marge Moore, and Mike Moore

This past week I attended the funeral mass of George Callahan Sr., who was married to a Kearns (Mickey, I believe). George is the father of Ellen (Callahan) McHugh and Mary (Callahan) Roulette, two of the best writers in Northeast Ohio (I believe George had 7 children and many grandchildren and great grandchildren). While at the mass at St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Mentor, Ohio, I heard the woman in front of me introduced as Sally Kearns. I immediately knew that Sally was my mother's cousin and good friend.

After the mass I introduced myself to Sally. I asked about her sister Pat, and found out that she had died around 2003, when my own Mother died. She also told me her sister Marge Moore had died. Sally and her sibling are related to my Mom in this way: their mother was a Sullivan (from Brownhelm Township in Lorain County); and my Mom's mother, Margaret Ann Sullivan Fitzpatrick, was her sister. The Sullivan girls all died fairly young. My grandmother died in 1940 at the age of 55, probably of blood pressure-related illnesses (easily treated in our day). I was born 8 years after her death.

When Sally looked at me and talked to me, she said that I had my grandfather John Fitzpatrick's "gene" (as she put it). I'm guessing that she was talking about some aspect of physical appearance. I had never ever heard anyone mention this connection to my grandfather. Alas, I don't remember John Fitzpatrick--he died in 1949 when I was a baby. My Mom did tell me that John had held me. So I have this tenuous connection to my maternal grandfather--and, in the eyes of Sally Kearns, I have his "gene." I hope I also have a little bit of the Sullivan sweetness, so clearly seen in my Mom and her siblings. Sally said that I do have that--but of course she can't know that for sure.

With Sally at the funeral mass was her niece, Mike Moore ( I think her given name is Mary Michelle, but she goes by Mike). Mike is the daughter of Marge Kearns Moore. Amazingly, she lives about a block from where I lived the first three years of my life--near Lake Shore Boulevard and Lost Nation Boulevard in Willoughby, Ohio.

There was one other Sullivan who lived in that neighborhood--Uncle Ed Sullivan (and his wife Helen Sullivan, and children Mary Ellen, Sally, John, and Mike). Ed was actually my maternal grandmother's baby brother, and was my great uncle. Sally Sullivan Silvaroli lives in Willoughby, Ohio; I had her son Joe in class some years ago. My sister Mary Ellen was named after Mary Ellen Sullivan. I've heard that John and Mike own the Mrs. Weiss' noodle soup company, located in Lorain County.