19 Comments
User's avatar
HartStrings's avatar

A wonderful story. Thank you for sharing it.

Expand full comment
Paula Halpin's avatar

Thank you, Maureen. Glad you enjoyed it.

Expand full comment
Susie Kaufman's avatar

I can see him with his slim, Fred Astaire, stance and his cane. Beautiful story.

Expand full comment
Janet's avatar

Loved this story. What a wonderful picture you drew

Expand full comment
Judy Bernstein's avatar

Paula, I could hear your voice as I read this piece. Thank you for sharing him with us. He was so right about your facility with words so early on and now in full bloom.

Expand full comment
Jim Sanders's avatar

Sorry for being different but I see this story completely differently.

I do not see Uncle Frank “living on.” I see a young girl experiencing a man of great pain and mystery, whom she only saw with an outside veil, who lost his wife, his son and essentially came back to Ireland to die. This story, for me, is about her and her telling the story and her interpreting what she saw. How she tells the story provides insight into her.

That is the beauty of good fiction, we can all see it differently reflecting what is within our own hearts and soul.

Expand full comment
Paula Halpin's avatar

Thanks Jim. I see Frank as a clear example of the old adage: "you can never go home again." As an emigrant myself, I know this to be true.

Expand full comment
Anna C Rumin's avatar

He was the cleanest man I’d ever seen. Oh Paula this is just gorgeous.!

Expand full comment
Beth Kaplan's avatar

Wonderful writing, Paula. You bring him to life for us.

Expand full comment
Bryan Demchinsky's avatar

A lovely story about a lovely man.

Expand full comment
Cathy gildiner's avatar

Every Irish Catholic had an uncle Frank

Expand full comment
Peter Newman's avatar

Lovely descriptions- and those contrasts in making out! Thank you for bringing Uncle Frank to us, and so vividly.

Expand full comment
Anne Byrn's avatar

Beautifully written, Paula. You ought to turn this into a novel.

Expand full comment
Rita C's avatar

Uncle Frank lives on, in your beautifully told story ❤️

Expand full comment
Alice Elgie's avatar

I just love these glimmers of people gone by. Thank you for sharing your Uncle Frank with us, Paula.

Expand full comment
Robert Snikkar's avatar

This is told so sweetly

Expand full comment
Cynthia Scott Aucoin's avatar

I very much enjoyed reading your story

Expand full comment
Michèle RdeC's avatar

A lovely slice of family history! Thank you.

Expand full comment