Saturday, March 8, 2008

Mary Carolina Cafarella Mitchell McLaughlin

This is my mother. I recognize that this photo is a bit over the top. As a young woman, she would stop people in the streets along with some of her cousins. Aunt May described her as "vivacious", and amongst her things I found a beach vamp permit. I suppose that tells it all. She was pinned against a wall by a runaway car on the Fellsway East in Malden and had her nose broken. I am told her personality changed completely after that, thinking her beauty was gone. She led a very difficult life including the death of her first husband from a prolonged, poverty and isolation shadowed illness and many years with MS and severe RLS. The one bright thing was her marriage to Lowell Paul McLaughlin. He supported and cared for her and her children till he death. She had three children: Mary, Richard and William.

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