Unearthing the entire story took me back over 100 years. Maggie McGrath, Helen’s mother, grew up in a thatched roof cottage that doubled as McGrath’s Pub in County Longford. The hours worked in the pub and on the family’s farm were long and hard. Neither the farm nor pub could support the entire family, so Maggie married William Gregg, a widower with four children, and immigrated to the United States.
They settled in Hell’s Kitchen on the West Side of Manhattan. Life was no easier though, especially during the Great Depression.
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