Frank's Niece!

[Cathy]

Can someone help me? I started to write my own memoir just for my family. I am not a writer as you all know. What exactly is a memoir and do I have to put everything in it? I don't want it out like Ellen's where everyone can read it, but I want to combine and continue where Ellen left off, just for my kids and grand kids. Jim Smith from Ohio did an article on my family growing up in Lorain, I am meeting him at the end of the month. He is taking me to my grandparents graves, where they went to school, their house...and hopefully I will see the orphanage they were left at. I am going to take pictures and I want to put it in the memoir. Jim is the one who suggested I write one. I need some smart people to tell me how to do it, what to put in it, and how to construct it....I don't want one day one for my great great grandchildren reading it to think their family came from a line idiots, if I don't do it right Thx ~Cathy~

Cathy, you don't need any help until after you have written down your impressions when you meet Jim and start your "sentimental journey", just in the way you write your posts here. He may be all the help you need as he has already written stuff.

daunce, thx, I am so exciting about meeting him and seeing everything. I just keep thinking about when I'm gone an about my great great grandchildren, I don't want to leave any "secrets" for them to dig up, or accidently come across. I think it will also help me...a lot already has. ~Cathy~

[Selene]

Can someone help me? I started to write my own memoir just for my family. I am not a writer as you all know. What exactly is a memoir and do I have to put everything in it? I don't want it out like Ellen's where everyone can read it, but I want to combine and continue where Ellen left off, just for my kids and grand kids. Jim Smith from Ohio did an article on my family growing up in Lorain, I am meeting him at the end of the month. He is taking me to my grandparents graves, where they went to school, their house...and hopefully I will see the orphanage they were left at. I am going to take pictures and I want to put it in the memoir. Jim is the one who suggested I write one. I need some smart people to tell me how to do it, what to put in it, and how to construct it....I don't want one day one for my great great grandchildren reading it to think their family came from a line idiots, if I don't do it right Thx ~Cathy~

Cathy:

You have heard the phrase that "the lady doth protest too much," correct?

You are extremely intelligent. True, you do not have the formal training that some have had, however, you speak to truth and you speak clearly. I would suggest you read about Eric Hoffer**. who wrote the True Believer, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True_Believer. He was a longshoreman who never got out of high school and he changed how folks view authoritarianism and lots of other aspects of life.

I would suggest that you do an "oral history" which would require you to speak into a recorder and free flow with your thoughts. Then you could decide what to commit to writing. As an aside, it is a good business to start, since many families would love to have an oral history to preserve for their children and grandchildren.

I helped a lady that I was involved with develop that type of business and it is a slam dunk winner.

Whose to say that you cannot be the next Hoffer, certainly not I.

A...

**

Hoffer was a young man when he also lost his father. The cabinetmaker's union paid for Knut Hoffer's funeral and gave Hoffer about three hundred dollars insurance money. He took a bus to Los Angeles, and spent the next 10 years on skid row, reading, occasionally writing, and working at odd jobs.^[7]

In 1931, he considered suicide by drinking a solution of oxalic acid, but he could not bring himself to do it.^[8] He left skid row and became a migrant worker, following the harvests in California. He acquired a library card where he worked, dividing his time "between the books and the brothels." He also prospected for gold in the mountains. Snowed in for the winter, he read the Essays by Michel de Montaigne. Montaigne impressed Hoffer deeply, and he often made reference to him. He also developed a respect for America's underclass, which he said was "lumpy with talent." He wrote a novel, Four Years in Young Hank's Life, and a novella, Chance and Mr. Kunze, both partly autobiographical. He also penned a long article based on his experiences in a federal work camp, "Tramps and Pioneers." This was never published, but a truncated version appeared in Harper's Magazine after he became well known.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer

[Cathy]

Remember? At first Michael thought you had taken creative writing courses. That shows that you have the natural gift for telling your story.

ha ha ha...that's funny! Remember, I am not blood related to "Ayn" I am blood related to Frank...that should tell ya something ~Cathy~ Even tho...it has been told through Ellen's memoir and my Aunt Agnes to us...he and Nick wrote the bulk of the Fountianhead....hmmmmm lol!

[Cathy]

Can someone help me? I started to write my own memoir just for my family. I am not a writer as you all know. What exactly is a memoir and do I have to put everything in it? I don't want it out like Ellen's where everyone can read it, but I want to combine and continue where Ellen left off, just for my kids and grand kids. Jim Smith from Ohio did an article on my family growing up in Lorain, I am meeting him at the end of the month. He is taking me to my grandparents graves, where they went to school, their house...and hopefully I will see the orphanage they were left at. I am going to take pictures and I want to put it in the memoir. Jim is the one who suggested I write one. I need some smart people to tell me how to do it, what to put in it, and how to construct it....I don't want one day one for my great great grandchildren reading it to think their family came from a line idiots, if I don't do it right Thx ~Cathy~

Cathy:

You have heard the phrase that "the lady doth protest too much," correct?

You are extremely intelligent. True, you do not have the formal training that some have had, however, you speak to truth and you speak clearly. I would suggest you read about Eric Hoffer**. who wrote the True Believer, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True_Believer. He was a longshoreman who never got out of high school and he changed how folks view authoritarianism and lots of other aspects of life.

I would suggest that you do an "oral history" which would require you to speak into a recorder and free flow with your thoughts. Then you could decide what to commit to writing. As an aside, it is a good business to start, since many families would love to have an oral history to preserve for their children and grandchildren.

I helped a lady that I was involved with develop that type of business and it is a slam dunk winner.

Whose to say that you cannot be the next Hoffer, certainly not I.

A...

**

Hoffer was a young man when he also lost his father. The cabinetmaker's union paid for Knut Hoffer's funeral and gave Hoffer about three hundred dollars insurance money. He took a bus to Los Angeles, and spent the next 10 years on skid row, reading, occasionally writing, and working at odd jobs.^[7]

In 1931, he considered suicide by drinking a solution of oxalic acid, but he could not bring himself to do it.^[8] He left skid row and became a migrant worker, following the harvests in California. He acquired a library card where he worked, dividing his time "between the books and the brothels." He also prospected for gold in the mountains. Snowed in for the winter, he read the Essays by Michel de Montaigne. Montaigne impressed Hoffer deeply, and he often made reference to him. He also developed a respect for America's underclass, which he said was "lumpy with talent." He wrote a novel, Four Years in Young Hank's Life, and a novella, Chance and Mr. Kunze, both partly autobiographical. He also penned a long article based on his experiences in a federal work camp, "Tramps and Pioneers." This was never published, but a truncated version appeared in Harper's Magazine after he became well known.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer

Thx Selene...I didn't think about a recording! I think that could help me a lot. I will look at the links and see what I can learn...all of this, and I mean all of this is new to me. I want my future generations to know about the O'Connor side and know about "Ayn's" philosophy of life and let them choose what they learn from it. Thank you for your help! ~Cathy~

[ginny]

Love your spirit, babe. Wish Connie had some of it.

[Cathy]

Love your spirit, babe. Wish Connie had some of it.

Me to ~Cathy~

[Cathy]

Remember? At first Michael thought you had taken creative writing courses. That shows that you have the natural gift for telling your story.

ha ha ha...that's funny! Remember, I am not blood related to "Ayn" I am blood related to Frank...that should tell ya something ~Cathy~ Even tho...it has been told through Ellen's memoir and my Aunt Agnes to us...he and Nick wrote the bulk of the Fountianhead....hmmmmm lol!

Selene, I think I should re-state that, In Ellen's memoir, Aunt Bess had told her that Nick and Frank help her write the Fountainhead. Aunt Agnes told us that they just helped her write. Then Marna told me the same thing about Frank and Nick and the fountain head. I just wanted to make that clear. So I just assumed they. did, but I don't know if they did or not. Sorry for any confusion ~Cathy~

[Reidy]

(Maybe this has already come up on the thread.)

Was Nick gay? If he was, did the family know it? Did Frank and Alice know it?

[Cathy]

No aunt Alice skidded around about it cause he would help her pick her clothes out. I think people thought he could be because he was do passive and never had a steady girlfriend. But he was trying to get a writing career. But really he,s the only one who knows. Cathy

[AlexL]

Cathy,

I wonder if you remember the Russian prayer Aunt Alice taught you and your sister. Can you transcribe here whatever you (and/or your sister) remember? Or send me a Private Message?

I speak Russian and maybe I can determine what kind of a prayer it was.

Thanks in advance,

Sasha

[Cathy]

Cathy,

I wonder if you remember the Russian prayer Aunt Alice taught you and your sister. Can you transcribe here whatever you (and/or your sister) remember? Or send me a Private Message?

I speak Russian and maybe I can determine what kind of a prayer it was.

Thanks in advance,

Sasha

Im sorry Sasha, I was so young that I don't remember it. But she spoke it like a song almost, if that helps ~Cathy~

[AlexL]

Im sorry Sasha, I was so young that I don't remember it. But she spoke it like a song almost, if that helps ~Cathy~

No, it does't :-) But thank you anyway. Maybe it was some children's song?

Sasha

[Cathy]

Im sorry Sasha, I was so young that I don't remember it. But she spoke it like a song almost, if that helps ~Cathy~

No, it does't :-) But thank you anyway. Maybe it was some children's song?

Sasha

She said it was a Russian prayer her mother taught her when she was a little girl. ~Cathy~

[conny o'connor]

Hi, I am Cathys twin sister, Conny. Cathy is at my home visiting and wanted me to get on your forum and say hi. We visited our grandparents grave site this week and also drove by where our father and his siblings grew up. Cathy has been trying to get me to drudge up the past, which has been something that I would rather not dwell on. I must say that she is very persuasive and determined that I start to remember people, places and moments in and about our childhood. We have talked quite a bit and found that her memories along with mine are connecting the pieces of our family. Cathy said that all of you have helped her a great deal by your encouragement and she is excited to learn more about our ancestry and that makes me happy for her. Conny

[Brant Gaede]

Greetings, Earth Woman. You are both under close observation from our Utah facility. Move around. Act natural. Don't look at the camera.

--Brant

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Conny,

Welcome to OL.

It's a real pleasure to have you on board.

Michael

[caroljane]

Hi Conny, what a lovely looking family.

Don't mind Brant, he is like that with all the girls. We do not get many new ladies on here so he can appear overeager to those unfamiliar with his true, rational, aloof self.

[Cathy]

Has anyone heard from Ginny, I am really worried about her. We were private messaging each other, and she went MIA, when she came back she told me she was in the hospital, and now she hasn't been on again.

[Cathy]

I wanted to let you all know about my visit to Ohio. I had to let it all sink in before I wrote it down. I met Jim Smith who wrote an article for the Elyria Chronicle Telegram last year about my family. Frist we met him at my grandparents graves. He said that we maybe the only ones to visited their graves in over fifty years. There are four O'Connor graves together there. Both my grandparents, my Aunt Margaret, and my Aunt Mary. The only grave marker that is there is Margaret's. I am working on getting the rest a marker. Then we went to the house the O'Connor children grew up in. That's where it all sunk in at. You could almost see the children playing in the yard and putting on plays for the neighborhood children. It was like their energy was still there. If only that house could talk....all the sufferings that went on inside its walls. Two babies died at birth, Aunt Mary died there at six years old, my grandmother who got sick and never returned there, my father first wife falling down the cellar steps, died in the basement of a fractured skull. I began to think how important Dennis, my grandfather was to all his children. I had heard stories of my grandparents all through my growing up years, and just thought, it was just stories. Now I know it was real, real people, real tragedies, real lives, a real family. Aunt Alice told me that she would call my grandfather her American father, and she referred to herself as he did also as his Russian daughter. Anytime Aunt Alice would talk about my grandfather she would talk about him with a big smile...he was her father in every sense of the word. I don't know why it was written that Aunt Alice didn't bother with the O'Connor family when she did. To really know Aunt Alice is to know the O'Connor's. It was Frank, Nick and Joe who gave Aunt Alice her beginning. The O'Connor children would put on plays in their back yard, Aunt Alice Uncle Frank, Nick and Joe would write screen plays and all four of them would act them out...just like they did when they were children. Aunt Alice and Uncle Frank may have said the were Atheist, but I found out on my trip that they were the ones who paid for our tuition for a Catholic education. Uncle Frank died in 1979, my father died in 1980. When the family told Aunt Alice about my father's passing, she wrote a letter saying how sorry she was and that she appreciated still being considered family...Marna still has that letter. This visit and Jim Smith also helped my sister come to terms with our past. I can talk to her now without her getting angry. She has remember things that I had totally forgotten, the circus peanuts and Good n Plenty's Uncle Frank would bring us. Both of us remember the day Conny accidently slammed my fingers in the car door and my Aunt Alice freaked out, it was my Aunt Agnes who stayed calm and fixed me right up. All of us were a family, and a good one until my father married my step mother. All of you know Ayn Rand and what her philosophies of life are...but I know the real Ayn Rand and how life with her really was. To really know her is to know the O'Connor's, without them, she would have remained Alice O'Connor. This has been an exhausting road for me with plenty of bumps along the way. All the bitterness, anger, confusion, fear, and sadness, has lead me to acceptance. I am half way done with my memoir, that has turned almost into a book. The last of the O'Connor's will die with me and my sister, but with my memoir, my children will have the O'Connor legacy. They will know how Dennis and Mary and their Irish American Catholic children and Russian Atheist daughter interweaved as a family and created Ayn Rand and a philosophy that has lived for over thirty years after their death. I now know who I am and what I am, and I can say for the first time in my life, I am proud to be an O'Connor

[caroljane]

Dear Cathy, and dear Conny too, what an amazing, astonishing and utterly American journey you have survived. I am so proud and enriched to know you.

[Cathy]

Dear Cathy, and dear Conny too, what an amazing, astonishing and utterly American journey you have survived. I am so proud and enriched to know you.

Thank you daunce and it has been a great pleasure to know you also. I hope you all know how amazing all of you are. The ones that read this and who have helped me along the way I feel so much gratitude for! If it weren't for you and others, I would have stopped fast in my tracks and would have carried on with life forgetting half of myself. I feel whole for once in my life...and I am happy ~Cathy~

[caroljane]

Cathy, have you heard from Ginny? I am concerned.

[Cathy]

Cathy, have you heard from Ginny? I am concerned.

No I haven't and I am worried sick. My friend was looking up some information for her and I know she was waiting for it. I have the information, but she hasn't been on. Do you know of anybody who knows how to get a hold of her? I know she was sick and I pray she is ok

[caroljane]

Cathy, have you heard from Ginny? I am concerned.

No I haven't and I am worried sick. My friend was looking up some information for her and I know she was waiting for it. I have the information, but she hasn't been on. Do you know of anybody who knows how to get a hold of her? I know she was sick and I pray she is ok

No, not a soul - I only know her on here. Maybe MSK knows someway?

Worried too,

Carol

[Cathy]

Cathy, have you heard from Ginny? I am concerned.

No I haven't and I am worried sick. My friend was looking up some information for her and I know she was waiting for it. I have the information, but she hasn't been on. Do you know of anybody who knows how to get a hold of her? I know she was sick and I pray she is ok

No, not a soul - I only know her on here. Maybe MSK knows someway?

Worried too,

Carol

I already talked to him, he sent an email and is trying to see if he can get a phone number somehow I do hope and pray she is ok! ~Cathy~