T HE G RE E N W AVE G AZE T T E
P AGE 5
A Century of Memories
Centenarian recalls story love and life
Alanna Halloran, Staff Writer
Recently, I had the chance to interview my
great grandmother, Margaret Dolorey. She
lives at the Colonial Rehab center in Weymouth and just turned 103 this past March,
and I was able to get many stories from
her century of experiences that ranged
from WWI up until the present day. It was
an amazing opportunity, and I would like
to share her stories and wisdom that she
passed on to me.
What was your earliest memory? My
first, biggest memory; I can tell you very
well what it was. It was marching down
Harvard Street (in Brookline) with my
little American flag when I was seven
years old. It was when WWI ended, and
my father was drafted and was supposed
to enter the war the following week. It was
probably one of the happiest days of my
life knowing that my father didn‟t have to
go to war after all.
“If you keep going so fast, your
life will pass you by and you will
have no memories to cherish or
share. Just slow down and smell
the roses.”
- Margaret Dolorey
Do you remember anything from
WWI? I can remember how everyone was
talking about it. I can remember the influenza and that so many people died because of it. My father had it, but he survived. It was so scary.
What was it like living through the
Great Depression? It was a very hard
time. I remember seeing the bread lines,
and all of the people. I was lucky because
my mother had a good job as a secretary
for a very rich man. We even got rides
around from a chauffeur.
We were so lucky. When did you meet
your husband? Oh, I remember this, it‟s
another cute story. When I met Tom, he
was playing in an Irish band with his
friend Paul. When he first saw me, he said
to Paul, “You see that girl in the red dress?
I‟m going to marry her!” But I actually
didn‟t really fancy him, because he was a
lot shorter than me. Believe it or not I
avoided him and told him that my name
was Mary. I even gave him a fake phone
number so that he wouldn‟t call me because I didn‟t want to be with the shrimp!
But, my best friend fancied Paul, and
tricked me into going on a date with him.
Eventually we got married, and were married for 62 years before he died. So, yes. I
married the shrimp.
How many children did you have, and
can you name them all? I have nine children. I will try my best to name them all.
(At this point, she began naming all of her
children in order from oldest to youngest.
She got a bit lost along the way, but with
the help of one of her daughters, my Nana,
she was able to list all of them). It wasn‟t
so bad having nine kids, other than the
fact that I didn‟t think I would have that
many. I remember praying to Saint Ignatius for kids, and after my first three children, I began asking him to turn it off!
(She began giggling at this point) I don‟t
know, it didn‟t bother me. Oh, maybe it
did, you know, now I‟m thinking I proba-
The author with her great grandmother
(Family Photo)
bly cried a lot.
What was your favorite story to tell?
Oh! I have this really cute story about my
old horse Sam. My father used to try to get
him from the pasture with the bridle, but
he would always whinny and run away
because he wanted to play. So my father
would come back to the house and say, “I
can‟t get him!” Then one day, I went
down to the pasture in one of my dresses
with a ribbon and I put the bridle on the
ground so that Sam couldn‟t see it. Because he couldn‟t see the bridle, he came
over to greet me, and I took the ribbon
around his neck and took him to the
house. My father was so surprised when
he saw me wa