Coughlin Kleppel Marching Pennywhistle Band

Colin Jude Kleppel and his Grampa "Brrr" [that's me!] marching around the house on Thanksgiving Day playing "Shortnin' Bread" on the whistle.

Red Cross and the S.S, Wright (Carolan's Temporary Home)

This video shows Carolan's home-for-a-while:

Home Sweet Home: Carolan's Home for a While, SS Wright

Check out this story, from a Red Cross blog: Home Sweet Home

Dorothy Day Article on Ernest and Marion Bromley and the Cincinnati Peacemakers

I've been reading Patsy Harman's book "Arms Wide Open," and it made me think about some of the characters in the book that I knew who were involved in a historic victory for the peace movement. Dorothy Day wrote about it:

 
"Bromley Eviction Halted"
By Dorothy Day
The Catholic Worker, September 1975, 3. 

As we go to press it gives me great joy to write of a victory on the peace front, a victory achieved by the valiant work of the younger members of the peace movement in the United States, which has long known the patient and long-suffering work of such bodies as the War Resisters and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, not to forget, to speak modestly, of the Catholic Worker. As of now, it looks as though our friends, the Bromleys, will not be evicted from the Gano Peacemaker house in Cincinnati, and that the sale of the house, which took place this last summer, will be annulled. Among others, credit can be given to Peggy Scherer, who, in addition to her manual labor here at the farm in Tivoli this past year, had continued her close collaboration with Chuck Matthei in Washington and other Peacemakers around the country. And Lee LeCuyer, who is a tireless worker at First Street, has also leafleted and picketed both in Cincinnati and New York. These are the ones who helped lead the movement which achieved this victory. Ernest and Marion Bromley's patient hard work--picketing, leafleting, resisting, speaking the truth--has not gone unnoticed.

It is a lesson for us all in the peace movement that gentle pressure, constant hard work, a faithful, straightforward--one might even say respectful--adherence to the Scriptural command to love our opponents and to exercise the virtue of hope even when all seems hopeless, offer a great example of the pure means to achieve our ends. Jacques Maritain impressed this use of pure means upon us as in the earliest days of the Catholic Worker. This victory also gives us all a sense of joyful gratitude, not only for the hard work of the young people, but even for those in government office who can respond, as they seem to have, to these persistent, though gentle pressures. Let us pray that this "little" victory will give courage to others around the country to take a stand, which involves a real commitment to the "voluntary poverty" we all talk so much about.

[This text is not copyrighted. However, if you use or cite this text please indicate the original publication source and this website (Dorothy Day Library on the Web at http://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/). 

Suggested citation:
Day, Dorothy. "Bromley Eviction Halted". The Catholic Worker, September 1975, 3. The Catholic Worker Movement. http://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/Reprint2.cfm?TextID=556]

Patricia (Patsy) Harman's book "Arms Wide Open"

I am about 50 pages into Patsy Harman's book, Arms Wide Open: A Midwife's Journey. The book was published in 2011 by Beacon Press. It is a very very good book!

I met Patsy about 38 years ago, when she was a hippy and peace agitator. I can't say I ever knew her very well. But I did visit the communes in Batavia, Ohio, and Spencer, West Virginia where she lived. I knew her husband, Dr. Tom Harman (I can hardly believe Tom's a physician!), and many of her friends: Kenny Przybylski, Wendy Rawlins Tuck, Tim Jenkins, Chuck Matthei, and so many more. I even lived in the ragged Batavia farmhouse after this group left for their West Virginia adventure (Rick Anderson was my house mate)..

To me the book reads like a "roman a clef," names of the characters changed to protect the innocent and guilty. The only actual names I think Patsy is using are her own name and her husband Tom's name.

So far the book has drama and tension--necessary ingredients to keep us reading. And I find the sentences well-crafted, almost at times like poetry. I keep wondering how Patsy learned to write so beautifully in a life that has been so full (and at times so hard).

Patsy has one other memoir out, The Blue Cotton Gown: A Midwife's Memoir (Beacon Press, 2009), and a novel, The Midwife of Hope River (William Morrow, 2012). I am going to read all of these books. I am so excited to see her talent blossom out like this.

Happy Birthday, 'Gert Ann!

Eulogy for My Mother, Margaret Ann Fitzpatrick Coughlin. December 11, 2003. St. Mary’s Church, Painesville, Ohio.

We would like to thank all our family members, our  friends, our relatives for their kind wishes and prayers for my Mom over these past few days. Thanks especially to Aunt Kay and Uncle Bill Coughlin, to all the Coughlin cousins, to the Brock cousins, and all the Fitzpatrick cousins, who are as numerous as the stars in the sky. Thanks to our Euclid friends, our Chardon friends, our Mentor friends, our Valley City friends, our friends from work. Thanks to my brother Denny, his wife Sherri, and children Marlo, Sean, Kit, and Cory, who flew in from California. And to Marie and Michelle Zaremba, and Mike and Amy Zaremba, all who came up from  southern Ohio. Thanks especially to Mary Ellen, who spent the last night of Mom’s life by her side in the hospital. And to Kevin and his boys, Ryan, Tommy, and Cody, who brought Mom into their house the last year of her life.

Those of you who saw my Mom’s obituary in Tuesday’s News-Herald probably had yourself a good chuckle. They listed my Mom as 70 years old, yet born on November 10, 1923. So much for the “New Math”! By that reckoning I’m 45 years old again. My Mom lied about her age as long as I can remember, but I have to hand it to the News-Herald!

In the last 8 years or so, many things have been taken from my Mom, many things lost. In 1996 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. In 1997, my Dad died. That same year Mom was diagnosed with macular degeneration, which led to virtual blindness. A year later she was diagnosed with colon cancer. These tribulations would have devastated a lesser person, but my Mom accepted her life with an amazing grace. She maintained her wonderful spirit, her positive attitude, her joyfulness, her mischievousness and sense of fun right up to the end. Of all her virtues, I admired most her unfailing sense of gratitude. A couple years ago I wrote this poem about her:

“My Mother’s Grace”

 -for Margaret Ann Fitzpatrick Coughlin

My Mother never holds

onto evil, suffering, hate,

resentment.

In her mind’s eye

is always centered

                Gratitude

joy and fun:

                It is the most amazing

                charism I have ever seen.

The day my Mother dies

she will have in front of her

not pain, regret, or fear,

                But the last wonderful thing.

                *              *              *

                                                               

And that last wonderful thing was, of course, gratitude. Gratitude for her life, her family, and her faith.

Mom with brothers Fenton (Skip) and Don (circa 1940)

89th Anniversary of Margaret Ann Fitzpatrick Coughlin's Birth Approaching

This Saturday, November 10th, will mark the 89th anniversary of my Mother's birth. Margaret Ann Fitzpatrick was born November 10th, 1923 in Cleveland to John F. and Margaret Ann (nee Sullivan) Fitzpatrick. She was the youngest of 6 children (after Al, Julia (Dudie), Fenton (Skip), and twins Dick and Don.

She was a wonderful person. Fun, funny, full of life, full of spirit. Here's a photo of her with niece Susie Brock from around 1957.

Looks like they drank a lot of beer back in 1957!