NANA’S LOVE STORY
I THINK I’D LIKE
TO MEET MARY
Our story begins with Aunt B. Also known as Beatrice Brown, Aunt B owned a direct mail advertising business and lived alone in New York City. Her brownstone was in Upper East Side, only a few streets away from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Nana’s Aunt Nora work for Aunt B. She told her so many stories about her niece, Mary, and finally one day Aunt B said, “I think I’d like to meet Mary.” They went to Saint Joseph’s orphanage in Peeksville and that is where she adopted both Mary and her brother.
Aunt B had bad lungs. The doctors said the best thing for her to do would be get out of the city when she can. So every summer they would pack their things and head to a little bungalow in a beach town called Breezy Point.
CAN YOU TAP A KEG?
Also spending the summertime in Breezy Point was my grandpa, Kevin. It was the summer of 1947 the first time he saw Mary. She was having a party and the front porch of her bungalow was packed with friends. Kevin walked over. Mary was in the street dancing with a friend. He asked her to dance. She asked him to help tap the keg.
The next day Mary came into the grocery store where Kevin worked. He asked her if she’d like to go to a beach party with him that weekend. She said she would have to ask her aunt. He didn’t realize the woman she was with was a family friend, not her Aunt B. He hardly waited more than a minute before finding her in the store and asking “What did she say?”. They spent the summer together.
MARY DOESN’T WANT TO SEE YOU ANYMORE
My grandpa said winters were tough. They didn’t get to see each other as much. Mary was busy working as a secretary at Rockefeller Center. One winter she started spending time with someone from work. Since they were no longer going steady, Kevin decided to ask a girl from the beach to go to the movies. She couldn’t go on the date because she was in night school. Sometimes Kevin would pick her up from the train station and drive her home after her classes. Mary’s friends found out about this and told her what was going on. She took Aunt B’s car and followed Kevin to the train station. She was crushed. Kevin still wanted to be with Mary. When he showed up at the house to take Mary on a date, Aunt B answered the door and said, “Mary doesn’t want to see you anymore.”
SHE SAID OK…
It was summer again. Kevin was eating dinner with his family and the phone rang. It was Aunt B. She said Mary was going to the novena at the tiny Breezy Point chapel. The phone clicked. Kevin jumped from the table. He saw people coming out of the church. He saw Mary. He said he ran across the street asked her if she wanted to go to the movies with him, tonight, and “she said ok”.
& THEN SHE SAID YES!
TWO BECAME SIX
AND ONE SUMMER TURNED INTO
SEVENTY-ONE SUMMERS.
Nana passed away on the last day of summer, September 21st, 2018. Kevin joined her in heaven on Thursday morning, May 6th. Together Kevin and Mary lived a life filled with love, adventure, family, friends, and exactly seventy-one perfect summers. 💕
