Vicki McNamara
236 Harben Circle
Marina Ca 93933
 

Thank you very much,

Brian

Thanks,
Vicki McNamara

 Thanks for getting in touch,

Brian

    Sean McNamara
    MCCS/Monitoring Unit
 

I want to let you know people still care. It was very unfortunate that my house was raped the way it was. We would go back periodically to visit and repair the house. The last time my mother and my husband and 5 sons visited we bought new mattresses, painted inside, put in new floor covering and had the place in good order. We washed the sheets we had used, put them out to dry before we left, put new sheets on the beds, put the kettel on the stove and coal in the coal bin at the end of the stove, and had it all ready for someone to go in start a fire and have a cup of tea.

My mother died and my husband and I went to Saudi Arabia for four years. During this time all our furniture...which was antique and in excellent shape was taken, we had a couple of silk rugs brought home to us from my aunt, Mary Herring, my father's sister who lived most of her life in Panama, as her husband had something to do with the Panama canal. They would get beautiful things from various parts of the world from the sailors, I guess, who would bring them back and sell them at their stops, one of which was Panama. The chests, drawers, bureaus, beds that were in the house were brought back by my parents who lived in the US for years, but went back to be with my grandparents, John and Mary Ryan just as before the depression. The most important objects that were taken were my grandparent's pictures. My grandmother Ryan was sitting there with her hair pulled back in a bun and with her black dress all the way up to her neck . Grandfather was sitting (another picture) with his bow tie and handlebar mustash..all very prim and proper. Those pictures meant a lot to me and I wouldn't take a thing out of the house because it was really a little museum and I wanted it to stay that way.

I had heard what was happening and when we returned from Saudi my two oldest sons went back and put a new roof on the house,  Jacked the house off the foundation put in a new foundation and new clapboad new window panes and barred up the windows...etc. Well, that didn't last long...it was all torn off as soon as they left, I was informed. At any rate, I really did not expect the "good" people of the area to do anything like that. It made me ill to go back as see the place, the bathtub was down in the salt water. A dish belonging to my greatgrandmother which we treasured..you know the blue and white..there's a certain name for that type of china and they're made in England..was smashed on the laundry tub. Evedrything was gone or smashed to pieces.

Why would people do such things? A couple of things were  taken to Ben Rotchford"s house...he is my first cousin and he lives in Conception.. One was a picture of my Aunt Maud, who was in her early 20ies when she died of TB. But the frame on this picture is nothing compared to the others.  They were oval with concave glass and were gold and very ornate.

We would go back every few years and now I've been back just three times since this happened. I guess you are getting tired of this, but I did want you to know. Since you are near Chapels Cove check out more from my cousins, Angela Hawco Quinlan, Or her brother Bernard. They're relatives on my mother's side. Ann Smith, 22 Bond Street is my cousin on my mothers side. WE had a violin that belonged to me that was taken...I would love to recover that..it was given to me by my uncle Jim Hawco and previously it belonged to his brother Bernard, who was studying to be a priest at St. Mary's College, Maryland. I have never been there but I hope to go there sometime. He became ill...from what I have heard, he must have been bi-polal.

Michael Rotchford..(Muck) also could tell you more. It was a place people liked to visit when I lived there. My Aunt Mary and her family came every two years to visit from Panama, and the kids loved it. My oldest son, Bill, when we were visiting hid, so he could stay there, he didn't want to return with us. I well remember my cousin Jack Ryan, who was tired of looking for him saying "Now where did that little bitch's son hide?" Bill, now lives in Maina, California, has three daughters and he and his wife are nurses. He works in the ER.

There's loads more. My brother, J. Harold Ryan came here at 18 and was killed when a bridge collapsed in Costa Rica where he was working. My brother Tom died of Cancer and my sister...actually my first cousin, wholived there longer and knew more than any of us, is living in Florida. She is going to sell her house as she wants to return to the Pennsylvania area to be with her children. Her husband, Sandy McGrath, from Colliers died and she has had some health problems. Her phone number is 1-941-542-5972 if you know someone who would like a beautiful home at a good price.

Well...I am glad to finally be able to talk to you . Thank you for picking my house. I sure wish it were the way it used to be. I will send you some pictures. but I'll have to hunt for them. I'm not very organized. Hope I didn't wear you out.

There's lots more....the Ryans have been there from the very beginning...my great great great grandparents from Ireland. Take care. God bless you.

Mary L.. Ryan McNamara
346 Harttman Drive
Severna Park, Md. 21146.

________________________________________________________________

I had a short note without any name but I guess it was from you.  Sure you may print anything I say but  I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings so I wouldn't want you to mention the name of the man who refused to give permission for the electricity poles to go on his property so that people "down the harbour" could have electricity.  Here the land would be condemmed for the common good, a price paid for the land, and electric lines would go through.  Or else an easement would be created, at any rate no one would be in power to prevent others from having such things as electricity, roads, etc.

My son "Patrick" says he would like to go "home" this summer.  Not that we have a home to go to now, but we would stay with some of our relatives, either in Colliers, Chapels Cove, or St. John's.  We have a lot of cousins all over the place. I have not made up my mind l00% but the more I think about it the more I feel maybe it would be nice to go back, while so many of my older relatives are still perculating,  and that goes for me too.  No one knows what's going to happen from one year to the next and this is as good a time as any.  If so I will  let you know. 

I'm glad you like the property, and I hope  you have been able to taste the wonderful black cherries that grow in front of the house.  I wonder what happened to the strawberry  patch  where my grandmonther Ryan would grow nice big fat , sweet strawberries.

We had some nice lillock trees, also.  Some bloomed early, and one tree bloomed late and the color was more intense and so was the odor.  I love the smell of lillocks.

There's a piece of ground across the beach that looks out across the water at the horizon that belongs to me also, but it's sort of land locked, as one could not go across the beach anymore.  It is on the far side of Sam and Kate McGrath's property.

To go up on the little hill were the trees are and sit and watch out to the sea is very relaxing.  It is behind Rosaleen and Sandy McGrath's property. I used to like to go there and sit and watch out at the sea and the clouds in the sky, sometimes go looking for bird nests and sometimes go picking blueberries or chuckly pears.  Have never found any chuckly pears anyplace else. My cousin, Rosaleen McGrath, may be coming back home home this summer also.  My Parents reared her after her mother died on the birth of her last baby, who now lives in CAlifornia with her husband, and her two children live closeby. 

Newfoundlanders are a wandering race, you know.  You are apt to find them whereever you go, and they never lose their accent, at least not all of it.  I came here at 17 years of age and now am 73 ..and people will still ask me where I came from.  Yet when I go home they call me a "yank"..because of my  US accent.  When one leaves home, he leaves part of himself there, actually  if he lives  fora time in any state or country it happens too, yet there is no going back.  I've tried it.People change, the place changes radically...all you have are your memories.

Well, I must get going with my homework now and get that out of the way. You take care..I will hunt for some old pictures for you..The house was built by my Father..Tom Ryan and his parents, Mary Whelan Ryan and John Ryan lived in it until my mother, Anistasia (Annie) Hawco Ryan and my father came back from living in the US to live there.  They were good providers and we never knew what it was to be hungry during the great depression.  My mother was a wonderful cook and would bake from scratch wonderful cakes, puddings, and pies.  We always had a linen tablecloths and nice dishes.  Every once in awhile my mother would get oil cloth tablecloths and I know I didn't like them at all.  Just didn't feel right.  She would also feed the chicken on a tablecloth..sometimes it was a sheet..but she would spread it out and put the oats on it to give the chicken a good meal...the cousins who saw this happen couldn't believe it
and talk of it to this day.  Now she had a method to her madness. 

You see the main attraction at our house was the horse..he reinded supreme...but my mother would take his oats to give to the chicken at the back of the house..when she'd hear my father coming she would pick up the four ends of the tablecloth and take it in the house because he would have been angry to give his wonderful oats to the chicken.

Gotta go.  God bless you.  Take care...Life is fleeting and precious..enjoy the moment it is all we have. 

Mary L.Ryan McNamara
________________________________________________________________

I'm not too good on the computer and I can't find your message to me. My son Ed wanted to see what you had to say. Also, I haven't heard from you in a while, so I don't know if you wrote or not. My computer has not been very good at times. Ed tells me to do whatever with it, as I'm kind of scared that I'll break it, and that if it's broken he'll come and fix it, he doesn't say what year.

My son Patrick wants to go home this summer, he has only been there once, I'd like to go and visit my relatives, but I don't know if I can make it. Some of my good Saudi friends will be coming in July and the lady, Aisha, will probably be having some heart surgery...she has strictures in the mitral valve...I don't know for sure if she will have this done and just want it entails, I would want to be here to help her. They usually stay at our house, but Patrick came back home and took up residency in the rec. room so it will be a tight squeeze. It will be up to them, they have everything possible now, but they didn't always have it so good. They're very nice people and we will try to do the best we can for them.

I started a refresher course in Nursing and it's just about done me in. I don't even know why I started it. This weekend I have to go all weekend for Acupuncture CEU's. If you don't get enough CEU's in such things you lose your license.

'Taint an easy life here in there United States. It's a life full of stress. Every once in awhile I will take a mental mini vacation and go back to our house and watch my mother feed the chicken on a table cloth, see my grandmother walk around the yard,and my brother play with Sanko, his little dog...now they're all gone, but I can still see them well.

Then I go down near the water at the back of my house, that was a favourite place for me watching the waves hit up against the big rocks.  It was always so peaceful there.

Well, nothing more right now. I have found some pictures of way backthen, but there are more that I must hunt for, unless my husband just threw them out. He has a habit of throwing things out without looking inside. Take care. Hope all goes well with you.

God bless you. Still caring....Mary
________________________________________________________________