Best Friends

My mother Mary met Peggy Caitlin when, as children,  they were both living in an apartment building in the south side Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago, right along the Rock Island Railroad tracks.  Peggy's father was the janitor, and once worked in the coal mines of southern Illinois, until he was injured, and the family moved to Chicago, where he took whatever jobs he could get.  Both Peggy and my mother went to Calumet High School, also located on the south side of Chicago, and remained friends for the rest of their lives. The photograph on the left shows my mother (on the left) and Peggy (on the right)  posing in downtown Chicago, most likely around 1937 on LaSalle Street, where my mother worked at an insurance company before she was married.

Peggy moved to Connecticut after getting married, but they still kept in touch, and for many years would get together at a summer home owned by a mutual friend on Cape Cod, located in the town of Chatam. The photo on the right shows Peggy (on the left) and my mother Mary (on the right) posing on the patio of that house, enjoying good times in the latter part of their lives. We should all be so lucky. Sadly, both Peggy and my mother are gone now, as well as that summer cottage, which was sold and no doubt torn down to build a year-round McMansion. I wonder if they call them that back east, or perhaps something more elegant?