Obituary of Margaret McDonough

A Few Words on the Life of Margaret Mary McDonough

The poem in the previous blog post was written by my friend kp, who was one of Margaret McDonough's closest friends. There has been no official obituary for Margaret, but I'm going to try to piece together what I know about her life.

Margaret was from Bay City, Michigan, born around the time I was born, May 2nd, 1948. Margaret died in Cincinnati on March 21, 2022, a week ago. After a 6 week stay in the hospital, she was discharged to the skilled nursing unit at her retirement community.  Four days later she died peacefully.  Her brother Jack was with her when she died.  During the 6 weeks of hospitalization she had a team of friends, Debbie Boerschig, Sue Brungs, Charlene Riva, Liv Henson, and kp, advocating and caring for her as much as was permitted. Margaret was deeply loved, which was made perfectly clear during her final illness.

For a while I lived near Margaret, maybe a quarter mile away (for a time I was on Orchard Street and then on Lang Street in Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati). Margaret lived on Boal Street near the Young Street steps, just up the street from my friends Henry Scott and Dan Bromley (they were at 324 Boal). She had many friends on Orchard Street and knew the folks in the Mansfield House Commune. We had many friends in common. I'm sure we were in the same place at the same time, but I don't remember meeting her.

Margaret attended the College of Mount Saint Joseph, like kp and Mary Jane Atkinson. Her resumé is a little crazy, like so many of my friends. She started her teaching career on the Lakota Sioux Reservation in Saint Francis, South Dakota, and later returning to Cincinnati she taught 4th and 5th grade at St. Henry’s in Northern Kentucky. After several years of teaching, she decided to change her career path. She took classes in horticulture and worked for 17 years at Frank's Nurseries, becoming their first female store manager. In 1990, Margaret joined the UK Royal Horticulture Society and specialized in growing flowering sweetpeas, resurrecting a flower that had been popular in Cincinnati before World War II. From then until retirement, Margaret was a familiar face at Court St. and Findlay Markets, eventually selling rare plants and other flowers as well as her sweetpeas. For a decade or more Margaret volunteered as a reading instructor for adult learners.

For a while Margaret lived near the Fernald Nuclear Plant--a place with a disguised name (Fernald Feed Materials Production Center) and a secret source of vast and dangerous radioactive pollution (it released millions of pounds of radioactive uranium dust into the air). Could this have been a contributing factor in Margaret's death?

Toward the end of her life, Margaret moved to a cottage connected to Twin Towers Senior Living Community in Cincinnati. She was greatly loved by her neighbors in this community.
In a Facebook post, an old friend of Margaret mentioned some of the things she fought for throughout her life: Native Americans, Women in Business, Hispanic Immigrants, Children, and Community Gardens. And in the end, a heroic fight for her own life.

Margaret is being laid to rest at the same time as her 98-year-old mother, Lorraine McDonough, at the St. Patrick's Catholic Cemetery in Bay City, Michigan. Mrs. McDonough died a couple weeks before Margaret's passing.

The Irish would say: "Margaret's likes will not be seen again." And "Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dílis," May her sweet soul be at God's right hand.

Keep Margaret, Lord, like the apple of your eye. Shelter her under the shadow of your wings. Let Perpetual Light shine upon Margaret Mary McDonough.

 
Bob Coughlin / March 29, 2022

Another Poem for Margaret McDonough, Rest in Peace

 

(above, Margaret on the Spring Street Steps, Boal Street, Over-the-Rhine)

WAITING

Waiting.

Being present.

Is it called "being present" if you're not in the same room?

Presenté!  Our departed loved ones and heroines ~ 

Presenté!

To live in the now is to realize it's now.

My memories are now.

Fifty-six years compressed into now.

Roommates our Freshman Year

Maid of Honor

Stories from the Reservation

Godmother extraordinaire

Surviving the years of single motherhood because you visited after work.

Climbing Young Street stairs to watch Mr. Rogers & Sesame Street

With Daisy on the roof.

Trips in the Red Bug, three kids and a bloodhound in the back seat,

Old Man's Cave, Natural Bridge,

And the Saginaw Bookstore with a tomato on the shelf.

The Cottage, The Greenhouse, Ireland - now, now, now.

You told me once when I was grumpy,

"It doesn't matter if they delete you from history

Or mythologize you;  I was there.

I remember."  A simple echo of God's words,

"I know you. You are mine."

The IV pump is ticking

Voices down the hallway

Ashes on your forehead

Repositioning, med passes, a parade of medical teams 

Now

Quiet Breathing

Now

Healing

Now

God in and around us

Now.  Presenté!

[kp. for Margaret McDonough.  3/3/2022]

(above, Margaret in Ireland, circa 2000)

A Few Words on the Life of Margaret Mary McDonough

The poem above was written by my friend kp, who was one of Margaret McDonough's closest friends. There has been no official obituary for Margaret, but I'm going to try to piece together what I know about her life.

Margaret was from Bay City, Michigan, born around the time I was born, May 2nd, 1948. Margaret died in Cincinnati on March 21, 2022, a week ago. After a 6 week stay in the hospital, she was discharged to the skilled nursing unit at her retirement community.  Four days later she died peacefully.  Her brother Jack was with her when she died.  During the 6 weeks of hospitalization she had a team of friends, Debbie Boerschig, Sue Brungs, Charlene Riva, Liv Henson, and kp, advocating and caring for her as much as was permitted. Margaret was deeply loved, which was made perfectly clear during her final illness.

For a while I lived near Margaret, maybe a quarter mile away (for a time I was on Orchard Street and then on Lang Street in Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati). Margaret lived on Boal Street near the Young Street steps, just up the street from my friends Henry Scott and Dan Bromley (they were at 324 Boal). She had many friends on Orchard Street and knew the folks in the Mansfield House Commune. We had many friends in common. I'm sure we were in the same place at the same time, but I don't remember meeting her.

Margaret attended the College of Mount Saint Joseph, like kp and Mary Jane Atkinson. Her resumé is a little crazy, like so many of my friends. She started her teaching career on the Lakota Sioux Reservation in Saint Francis, South Dakota, and later returning to Cincinnati she taught 4th and 5th grade at St. Henry’s in Northern Kentucky. After several years of teaching, she decided to change her career path.  She took classes in horticulture and worked for 17 years at Frank's Nurseries, becoming their first female store manager. In 1990, Margaret joined the UK Royal Horticulture Society and specialized in growing flowering sweetpeas, resurrecting a flower that had been popular in Cincinnati before World War II. From then until retirement, Margaret was a familiar face at Court St. and Findlay Markets, eventually selling rare plants and other flowers as well as her sweetpeas.  For a decade or more Margaret volunteered as a reading instructor for adult learners.

For a while Margaret lived near the Fernald Nuclear Plant--a place with a disguised name (Fernald Feed Materials Production Center) and a secret source of vast and dangerous radioactive pollution (it released millions of pounds of radioactive uranium dust into the air). Could this have been a contributing factor in Margaret's death?

Toward the end of her life, Margaret moved to a cottage connected to Twin Towers Senior Living Community in Cincinnati. She was greatly loved by her neighbors in this community.

In a Facebook post, an old friend of Margaret mentioned some of the things she fought for throughout her life: Native Americans, Women in Business, Hispanic Immigrants, Children, and Community Gardens. And in the end, a heroic fight for her own life.

Margaret is being laid to rest at the same time as her 98-year-old mother, Lorraine McDonough, at the St. Patrick's Catholic Cemetery in Bay City, Michigan. Mrs. McDonough died a couple weeks before Margaret's passing.

The Irish would say: "Margaret's likes will not be seen again." And "Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dílis," May her sweet soul be at God's right hand.

Keep Margaret, Lord, like the apple of your eye. Shelter her under the shadow of your wings. Let Perpetual Light shine upon Margaret Mary McDonough. 

Bob Coughlin

Poem for Margaret McDonough

 Let Me Die in Springtime

O Lord let me die

In springtime, my short life

Celebrated by crocus and daffodil

Weeping cherry and spring beauty,

Cherished by a few

Friends, family, lovers–

Let me go with the words

Thank You on my last breath–

Thank You

Thank You

Thank You.

[by Bob Coughlin. For Margaret McDonough, March 21, 2022, Springtime in Cincinnati.]

There's a kind of obituary of Margaret McDonough in my March 28th and March 30th, 2022 blog posts--a brief sketch of her life.

View of Cincinnati from atop Mt. Echo Park: Cincinnati Where the River Wi-i-inds

Almost forty ears ago I was hitchhiking in Tennessee near the Smoky Mountains. A young couple picked me up, asked me where I lived. When I told them Cincinnati, they both broke out into song:

One more hour and I'll be home,
Close my eyes and rest my bones.
Can't be more than a mile or so
From Cincinnati, O-hi-o, Cincinnati, O-hi-o.

Cincinnati where the river wi-i-inds,
Cross the Mason and the Dixon line.
There's a place for me, I know,
In Cincinnati, O-hi-o, Cincinnati, O-hi-o.

This very song I sang with my Peacemaker friends at the Mansfield House Commune--me on guitar hitting the simple three chords. When it came to the "wi-i-inds" part, we laid it on thick, pulling a one-syllable word into an entire line. It was great fun. Well last Sunday, at the memorial picnic for Dorothy Glanzer, I saw many of these old friends. The picnic was at Mt. Echo Park, hundreds of feet above the city, with a perfect view of downtown and northern Kentucky, and that Ohio River wi-i-inding around. Here's a photo I took:

Cincinnati, from Mt. Echo Park

NY Times Article Asks, "Would Pope Francis Sign the New Catholic Schools Contract?"

A friend sent me this stunning article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/11/opinion/sunday/bruni-lessons-in-catholic-judgment.html?hp&rref=opinion

Lessons in Catholic Judgment

Continue reading the main story

“WOULD Pope Francis Sign the New Catholic Teacher Contract?” That’s the question spelled out on a dozen billboards that have gone up around Cincinnati over the last week or so.
And it’s an excellent one, because it flags the tension between what’s been said in Rome and what’s happening in Ohio, between a message of greater tolerance and the practice of the same old intolerance, between the direction in which the Catholic church needs to move and the matters of sexual morality on which it keeps getting stuck.
Those matters take center stage in an expanded employment contract that the Archdiocese of Cincinnati is forcing on more than 2,000 teachers, some of whom are refusing to sign it. In what the document does and doesn’t spell out, it sends the tired message that virtue resides in whom you share your bed with and how you do or don’t procreate.
The more things change, the more they remain mired in libido and loins.
The billboards are sponsored by Cincinnati Voice of the Faithful, which is part of a quickly welling protest of the newly detailed terms of employment.
Photo

Credit Ben Wiseman

Teachers in Catholic schools have long been forced to accept a vague morals clause telling them that they shouldn’t contradict Catholic doctrine. But teachers in Catholic schools in the Cincinnati archdiocese are being given a longer, more explicit litany of words and deeds that could get them fired.
The new contract expressly forbids a “homosexual lifestyle” and any “public support” of one. But it says nothing about public support of the death penalty, something else that the church opposes.
The new contract specifically rules out any use or advocacy of abortion rights, surrogacy, even in vitro fertilization. But it doesn’t address possible advocacy of the sorts of bloody military engagements that the church often condemns.
The new contract forbids “living together outside marriage,” “sexual activity out of wedlock” and any public endorsement of either. But there’s no reference to concern for the downtrodden, to the spirit of giving, to charity. And while those are surely more difficult to monitor, aren’t they as essential to Catholic principles, and closer to the core of the faith?
The Cincinnati document could be a harbinger of similar ones around the country. Already, Catholic officials in Hawaii and in Oakland, Calif., have introduced new teacher contracts that reflect the same concerns or delve into the same specifics.
And these specifics contradict what Pope Francis said last year about the church’s undue attention to a handful of divisive social issues.
Remember: Faithful Catholicism has never been a condition of employment in most Catholic schools, which have Protestant teachers, Jewish teachers, teachers of no discernible religion. They know to be respectful. They know to be discreet. But they’re there to decipher the mysteries of algebra, to eradicate the evils of dangling prepositions. They’re not priests.
The Archdiocese of Cincinnati is blurring that distinction, labeling the new employment agreement a “teacher-minister contract.” The language is deliberate. Religious organizations can claim exemption from anti-discrimination statutes in the hiring and firing of ministers who are actual caretakers of the faith. Putting teachers in that category — lumping them together with clergy — is an end run around laws that govern other employers.

Continue reading the main story

But if Catholic schools are allowed an exemption from public accountability, shouldn’t they be denied public money? In Ohio they receive a significant amount of it, in the form of school-choice vouchers that families can use for parochial education.
With the “teacher-minister” classification and the long list of forbidden behaviors, Catholic officials in Cincinnati are trying to insure themselves against lawsuits like one filed by an unmarried female teacher who was fired after she became pregnant by artificial insemination. (A jury awarded her $171,000.) They’re also rationalizing decisions like the dismissal last year of Mike Moroski, a dean who indicated support for same-sex marriage on his blog.
Over recent days I spoke with him and other former and current employees of Catholic schools in the Cincinnati area. They wondered why religion gets to trump free speech.
They also wondered about run-of-the-mill political activity: Can a teacher be canned for attending a rally for a candidate who’s pro-choice? The contract suggests so.
Does a Catholic-school teacher relinquish the basic privileges of citizenship? The contract raises the question.
And what constitutes “public support” of a Catholic no-no? If a teacher’s Facebook page includes photographs of her niece’s same-sex wedding, is that cause to be fired?
“THE previous contract was two pages,” Richard Hague, who has taught literature and writing for 45 years at a Catholic high school in Cincinnati, said to me. “It was sort of don’t-ask-don’t-tell.”
The new contract is six pages and offends him in its suggestion that he must, for example, not express support for gay people in his life. Before it was distributed, Hague, 66, planned to teach for another five years. Now he doesn’t, and explained in a letter to the archdiocese: “I simply cannot believe that Jesus would require me to condemn my friends.”
Hague, who described himself as “a recovering Catholic,” said that his objections were distilled by a priest who told him that the archdiocese was turning “matters of the confessional” into “matters of the firing line.”
Mindy Burger, 63, is also declining to sign the contract, which she called “really misogynistic.”
“If I’m a teacher in a Catholic school and I’m a man, who’s going to know if I’m having sex outside of marriage?” she noted. “But if I’m an unmarried woman and get pregnant, I’m fired.”
These next weeks will be the end of her 18 years as an art teacher at her Catholic elementary school. She attended that very school decades ago and reared her own children as Catholics, but she told me: “At this point, I don’t consider myself Catholic anymore.”
There are so many losers here: kids — many from the inner city — who depend on parochial schools that will now be drained of talent; younger teachers who can’t afford to quit and will carry an embittered attitude into their classrooms; Catholics everywhere, forced to wrestle anew with their church’s archaic fixations; church leaders, who have such a sad knack for driving people away. Isn’t that what Pope Francis was urging an end to?
“I don’t see much in the gospel about sexual stuff,” said Timothy Garry, a lawyer in the Cincinnati area who sent all three of his children to Catholic schools and is trying to persuade the Cincinnati archdiocese to adjust the new contract.
Burger told me: “With Francis, everyone feels so hopeful. That’s one of the ironies of this.”

Where Are the Mansfield House People Now? (#4)

In this blog entry, I will talk about the members of and frequent visitors to the Mansfield House, and where they are now.

Greg Haas lives in Bloomington, Indiana, with his wife Dorothy;
John Luginbill, as far as I know, is in Cincinnati;
Joan Levy is a nurse or nursing prof, who lived for many years in Florida--not sure if she is still there;
Kenny Przybylski is deceased, dying circa 1987;
Jack Shereda, like Kenny a former Franciscan brother, is also deceased (circa 1990);
Caroline Bromley died in a freakish automobile accident, probably around 1980;
Bonnie Tompkins--don't know where Bonnie is, but probably in Cincinnati;
Peggy Scherer--last I heard she worked for the non-profit Heifer International;
Anne Weinkam is a nurse in Cincinnati. Anne's sister Clare Weinkam lives with her husband, Manuel Susarret, in the Clifton neighborhood of Cincinnati; Paul Weinkam, their brother, died some years ago of cancer;
Henry Scott, a nurse, lives with his wife Gina in Baltimore;
Mary Alice Shepherd Milnes lives near Elkins with her husband Gerry Milnes. They are renowned in American folk music circles.
Joel Stevens was in a serious bicycle accident years back and suffered a head injury; I think he's still in Cincinnati;
Dan Bromley, as far as I know, lives north of Cincinnati;
Dick Crowley lives near Boston;
Richard Gale--not sure!
Denny Ryan--I believe he works at the University of Cincinnati.
Chris Cotter, and his wife Linda, live in Urbana, Ohio. Chris is a physical therapist.
Andy Meyer became a physician, a radiologist I believe. For some reason I think he lived in North Carolina.

These were (and are!) wonderful, principled, intelligent, talented people, who have contributed much to the world!

The Great Xenia Tornado of April 3, 1974

Great Xenia Tornado of April 3, 1974

About 3 years before I met her, Linda was almost caught in the nastiest, deadliest tornado ever to hit Ohio. She was just outside the town of Yellow Springs, with a group of school children, hiking through John Bryant State Park with Jan Wolanin, an environmental educator, when the tornado hit. Xenia, just mikes away, took a direct hit (see the article that follows for the incredible impact of the tornado on Xenia). Linda's Volkswagen Beetle was clobbered with gigantic hailstones, dented beyond belief. But she, Jan, and all the little children were safe. When Linda tried to drive back to Dayton through Xenia, she saw the devastation and thought that, somehow, Xenia had been bombed. The area was awash with sirens, ambulances, fire trucks, police cars, and astonishing devastation.

That same tornado hit the west side of Cincinnati, devastating the Saylor Park neighborhood. My old friend Henry Scott was working that day at a Cincinnati hospital and could see the tornado sweeping across the west side of Cincinnati. The Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, where I lived, was spared the destruction.

Source: (click on the link for photos relating to this story.
http://www.ohiohistory.org/etcetera/exhibits/swio/pages/content/1974_tornado.htm

The tornado superoutbreak of April 3-4, 1974 resulted in 148 tornadoes in 13 states. Across the United States, 315 people were killed, more than 6,000 injured, and 27,000 families suffered property losses. The Xenia Tornado caused the most deaths of any tornado in the outbreak. In Ohio, 12 tornadoes touched down, killing 36 people.
The Xenia Tornado touched down at 4:30 PM nine miles southwest of Xenia and entered the city about ten minutes later. It continued northeastward on a path of 32 miles through Xenia and Wilberforce into Clark County. The Xenia Tornado killed 32 people from Xenia to Wilberforce. About half of the buildings in the city of 27,000 were damaged and 300 homes destroyed. Nine Xenia churches were destroyed, as were seven of the twelve schools in the city. Fortunately, the tornado occurred an hour after classes had been dismissed. The roof and windows were blown from the Greene County Courthouse. A train passing through Xenia was struck by the tornado and 7 of the 47 cars were blown over, resulting in the blockage of Main Street.
More than 1300 people were treated for injuries at Green Memorial Hospital. Restaurants that were not destroyed handed out thousands of free meals to residents and rescue workers in Xenia. Convoys of generators, floodlights, bulldozers, and dump trucks arrived overnight from nearby Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The tornado also struck Wilberforce University and Central State University, destroying many buildings and injuring several people on each campus.
Another violent tornado struck west of Cincinnati where homes were leveled and two people killed in Saylor Park. Other tornadoes that night caused significant damage in London and Mason and in rural areas of Adams and Paulding Counties.

Remembering Cincinnati's "12th Street Clinic"

In the early 1970s, I worked at Cincinnati's "12th Street Clinic," known bureaucratically as the "Pilot City Health Service." This was an experiment in medical care, a precursor to Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO's)--but far better than what they turned out to be. This clinic was led by a fantastic person, Dr. Joseph Alter, a local Quaker. I worked with Charles Couch, Moscoe Hendrickson, and June Miehle in the health education program of the clinic. The dental clinic was second to none and featured the work of James Dale White DDS, who I think currently practices dentistry around Wilmington, Ohio. There were wonderful internists and general practice physicians at 12th Street Clinic. One was Dr. Goldberg (possibly Leonard Goldberg). There was also a crew of visiting nurses associated with the clinic. One name I remember is Linda Olberding--I heard that she is a professor of nursing at the University of Cincinnati these days. A nurse I worked with was Becky Meyers, a wonderful person and fine nurse (and yes, a pretty girl). I helped Becky Meyers with a program she developed teaching young mothers and mothers-to-be how to take care of themselves and their new babies. There were also some fine social workers at the clinic. Two names come to mind: Tom DiFalco (he was thinking about becoming a priest), and Mark Baker. I think Shirley Gallahan was also one of these social workers. Two other names of Clinic associates come to mind: Maureen Sullivan (of the HUB Services), and the legendary Ernie Mynatt. They weren't employed directly by the clinic, but were connected with the work of that institution. I think Maureen might have gone to work for the Urban Appalachian Council. I wish I knew if Joe Alter is still alive; and what Becky Meyers, Charles Couch, Dale White, and June Miehle are doing. This was a wonderful place to work and a model of what our medical system should be. It dealt with the whole social and medical context of the residents of Over-the-Rhine, a poor neighborhood of Cincinnati. It will be a long time before the likes of the 12th Street Clinic is seen again!

[The photo above is of the Germania Building at 12th and Walnut Streets in Over-the-Rhine, a few blocks from the 12th Street Clinic. Photo source: http://queencitysurvey.blogspot.com/2007/11/queens-crown-jewels.html]