It was the Christmas of 1950 in a tiny third floor tenement apartment in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. This was my first Christmas with Thelma, my then twenty something-single-mother. We had just come home from Plymouth, New Hampshire, where I was born in less than auspicious circumstances, in a hospital which has since been torn down, I might add. My grandmother had allowed Thelma to fix-up the tiny third floor attic apartment where we could live! As angry as my grandmother had been that my mother had become pregnant, all it took was one look at me to melt her heart! I can have that affect on people! :)
This is the early version of the porta-crib! Notice the statue of a saint in the window... this was during my short lived Catholic period, followed by the longer Episcopalian period.
In 1952 Santa and I had a great deal to talk about! When we gave a copy of this picture to my great-grandmother she proceeded to tear Santa out of the picture because, as she said "We don't know him" and indeed we did not!
Well, Santa came through and I received the BIG dolly I was longing for! Isn't she cute? Aren't we both cute? Check out the wallpaper and sofa contrast in flowers... my my my!
Christmas in 1955 or 56 in Miami, Florida and the last Christmas I would spend with my mother for many years! The next several Christmases I would spend surrounded by 15 or 16 "strays" all living in the care of Harry and Marie Ingals on 101st Street on the Northwest side of Miami, just over the bridge from Hialeajh. Those Christmases would the most secure of my childhood.Wherever you spend this Christmas I pray it will be safe and secure and full of love and spent with those for whom you care deeply.
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