Who I am

I am a Native New Yorker, and a native Rockawayite. I was born and raised in Rockaway Park in Queens. Not Far Rockaway; that is a small section of the Rockaway Peninsula that borders on Nassau County, near the Atlantic Beach Bridge. I grew up on Beach 112th Street, three houses from the beach.

There were nine of us living in the house. My mother and father, maternal grandmother and grandfather, my Aunt Grace, my two sisters, Pat and Eileen, my brother Tommy and me. It was a nice house with a back yard, a front porch, a basement and an attic that was big enough to convert into four rooms, which my grandfather did.

We are Irish Catholic, and my grandparents were immigrants. They had thick brogues, especially my grandmother. In fact, most of the families on my block were Irish Catholics who all had their grandparents living in the house with them and all the grandparents had thick brogues.

All of us children went to St. Camillus School from kindergarten to the eighth grade except for Tommy; he died while he was in the fourth grade.

We girls then all went to Stella Maris High School. After that, we all did our own thing.

But, enough about that, this introduction should be short. I will say one more thing; I graduated from Marymount Manhattan College with a B.A. in Humanities in May, 2009, even though I was 54 years old, and from Tiffin University in 2014 with a Masters in Humanities with a concentration in Communications. I started college late, could only go half time, but finally finished.

Alright, enough with the introduction. I think that I have shared all that is needed.