grandma tulip (family series continued)

my mother's mother came over from ireland as a wee lass (see what i did there?). or that's what i was lead to believe. turns out some of her older siblings were born there but she and her fraternal twin were born in good ol' 'merica.


which is like the time i found out that my(!) middle name, which is my mother's maiden name, was not, in fact, my brother or sister's "extra" name. you see she had always said that my sister's name was fiona joanne finnegan rockwall and my brother's name was robert eugene finnegan rockwall IV (not at all their real names, although my brother is a fourth. weird.) i think it was when my brother turned 15ish and i got my hands on his driver's permit. i said, "hey! why doesn't it say finnegan on here?" to my mother. she started with the excuses, "well, there really isn't a place on the birth certificate for four names..." then why the fuck is my real name being cheapened by these two crap heads when it's not even on any official documents???? i was shocked to say the very least. shocked! my whole life i was like, "why don't i have a middle name? why do i only have three names?" then it all came crashing down. i'm still scarred (obviously).

we are of the "black irish" descent. i recently was asked (in central market) if i was from ireland. i said yes automatically, then... somewhat. i could tell she was very disappointed when i opened my mouth and no accent came out.* but she continued that she had just been to ireland i looked like every woman there with our "pale, pink skin and dark hair." little does she know, i dye this shit dark, it's actually blondish.

all of that is to tell you this, my grandmother was irish. my name is in a bible in ireland. my grandmother went to church every. single. sunday. she even believed that even if you went every single other day to church you would suffer damnation. we went with her for christmas when she came. it was fun but i was always jealous she got to have snacks halfway through. i was baptized but never went any further than that in churchy things. but i think that means i'm good. right?

she was a tiny, feisty woman. she liked to be sneaky with her jokes. she was also very quiet and laid back for the most part. her husband died just before i was born. in fact, when he died my mom said she felt me move in her uterus (ew). i flipped to the breech position at the very end of the pregnancy (i didn't come out my mom's vag, yay! ask her about! she loves talking about it! no, really! "and then they said, 'i see a foot! take her to the operating room!' and then, they cut you out of my belly, becky!" she says the last part while making a cutting motion over her lower abdomen).

my grandmother actually had a child before my mom, who died. so my mother was essentially taken care of by her grandmother for the first year of her life and by the time her sister (my aunt) came into being, she was raised by my grandfather because my grandmother had had enough (or something). i really want to know what her name was before she died. i can't think of how to ask her now.

to give you an idea just how feisty my grandmother is, she broke her elbow, while playing doubles ping pong. that's hardcore ping pong. i don't want to brag, but she did win several awards in her retirement community ping pong league. (i know!) she also used to square dance with my grandfather. i never got to see then, but she had an impressive square dancing wardrobe that i loved to dosey-doe around the living room in.

*god, i love irish accents. yummy