Norine's Notes
Norine's Notes
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Katherine Donahue Flynn Bardill
My mother was born at home in Knockeenahone, County Kerry, Ireland on June 28, 1910 to Dennis Flynn (from Scartaglen) and Ellen Donahue Flynn (from Cork).
She had a brother one year older whose name was Jack. My mother was a toddler when her mother, and the child she was delivering, died during childbirth from complications due to diabetes.
My grandfather, Dennis Flynn, drank too much and worked at W.H. O’Connor-Rhyno Mills in Castle Island. He could not manage the responsibilities of work and his two young children so two of his unmarried sisters, Molly and Nora, took my mother, Kit, in to live with them. Eventually, because of famine and poverty, they immigrated to the United States in search of a better life. My mother was in high school when they settled in Toledo, Ohio.
She graduated from Ursuline Academy in Toledo and then went to Bowling Green University. She planned to be a teacher. It was there that she met my father Stephen William Bardill, and they were married on April 10, 1935.
My mom accompanied my dad every step of the way on his journey to success. She readily adapted to the drastic change in life style from sheer hunger and poverty in Ireland to their participation and enjoyment of the post-war boom in the economy in the United States. However, once again her financial balloon burst after my dad’s death in 1969. Numerous strokes had robbed him of his keen mental capacities, and numerous bad business decisions, left her without much more money than she had when they met
Mom with me, her first and only child.
Mom with Tom, her first grandchild.
Mom with Ashley, her first great-grandchild
However, she continued to enjoy a rich life as a grandmother to my four children, and their children, for almost forty years. She died May 23, 2002 of a cerebral hemorrhage. Immediately prior to her death she had been out to eat with friends. She was 92 years old. She lived independently in her own apartment, walked to daily Mass, and enjoyed time with friends and family. She maintained good health throughout her life. She left me with the strong legacy of her spirituality and my children with a life time of her love.
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