Mary Ann McGoldrick was born and grew up in the sturdy thatched roof cottage that still sits high on the hillside of Killavoggy, Co. Leitrim, near Drumahair. Her late husband was Michael Morley formerly of Co. Mayo. Mary Ann, who immigrated to the United States, would tell her daughter (Mary) stories about Ireland when she was growing up and often said that "on a clear day, from that hill you can see for miles and miles the green hills and the valleys and the beautiful lakes." The life-style in Killavoggy was rural and simple. Not too far away from the hillside was the small school house she attended and just beyond it the church she worshipped in. To get to the hill from the main road she had to cross an old iron bridge. On Saturday evenings her mother's family, friends and relatives would gather on that bridge to dance and sing to the music of a fiddler. Mary Ann would say, "I often wondered how that old bridge ever stood up with all the dancing that went on there. ! Thank goodness they finally built a new steel one." Mary Ann's own mother had gone to America and lived in the Boston area for eight years; she would later return to Leitrim and marry there, but would often share stories about her time in Boston. In 1916, when Mary Ann was 18, she left Killavoggy in a cart pulled by a donkey, down the narrow dirt roads, past the schoolhouse, the church, and all the other memorable places that she held so close. She boarded the train at Dromahair, and the first stop was at Manorhamilton. She remembers her Uncle Owen, her father's brother, stepping aboard the train briefly and giving her a kiss good-bye. She recalls, "I felt so sad and alone as I waved to him from the train window and I wondered whether I would ever see my mother, father, sister and brothers again." As the train headed for Queenstown, she said she watched from that train window, and saw for the first time much of the Irish landscape that up until that time she had only heard about. In Queenstown she boarded a boat for Liverpool, and from she sailed on the "Carpathia, " for her trip to America. ("The Carpathia" was an English liner that in 1912 became famous as the first ship to reach and rescue some of the passeng! ers from the sinking "Titanic.") After arriving in NY and going through customs, she took another boat for Fall River, MA. From there she left by train for South Station in Boston where her Aunt Bridget and Uncle Mike met her. She lived with Aunt Bridget for six weeks until she got domestic work in the household of a Jewish clothing manufacturer where she lived for five years; she looks back with fondness on the wonderful relationship she had with the manufacturer and his family. Mary Ann and her cousin from Dorchester would go to Hibernian Hall dances where Irish immigrants would gather on weekend evenings. She would later met another Irish immigrant, Mike Morley, from Mayo, and they would be married in a double wedding ceremony; also exchanging vows on that Easter Sunday was Mary Ann's brother, Jack, who had arrived in America a few years after his sister, and his bride, Barbara, from Co. Galway. Mary Ann and Mike bought a house and raised their five children in Ever! ett. In 1954, Mary Ann returned to the land she had loved so much. Her mother was now in her 90th year, her father had died a few years before, and her only sister, Bridget, died in 1918 at age 16 from influenza. Her remaining brother in Ireland, Martin, was still living and they were reunited after all those years. Mary Ann's trip to America in 1916 had taken two weeks, her return trip to Ireland was completed in one day. Her husband was to die in 1963. Mary Ann's daughter says that each generation is linked to the next generation and the generations to come with a wonderful gift of continuity. As she and her mother sat in the kitchen of her Everett home, over tea, Mary reached over and took her mother's frail hand in hers and asked her how she felt now, about her life, looking back over the years. In that wonderful Irish brogue she said, "You know I often think about that hillside. So many things have changed. At times life hasn't been easy, but as hard as it was, sure, and I wouldn't have missed it for anything." -- Excerpts, "My Irish Mother," Mary Morley Armato, 1995 "Leitrim Guardian."