A wonderful friend and fellow American of Irish ancestry
passed away just over a week ago. I mention her and her
passing because one of her sons is the mayor of Waukesha
(Republican), my county's seat as well as a town with
which I have some ties: my high school, Catholic Memorial,
is there, my mother moved there shortly after her divorce
from my father and lived out her life in Waukesha,
and there was an Irish pub there where I have spent many a
joyful evening with friends and have stepped up onstage to
sing with a band whose members are all friends as well.
It was at this pub, the 5 Points Pub, so named for its location
at a corner of a 5-way intersection (!) that I met Peggy Reilly,
mother of Mayor Paul Reilly and a proud Irishwoman ---
born in America with Irish blood, and a devout Catholic.
Peggy loved Irish culture, especially the music and the dancing.
Already in her eighties when I met her and dependent on a
walker, Peggy Reilly, whose nickname was Dicey for the
character in an Irish pub song, "Dicey Reilly", we became
fast friends and I would join our friends in the pub in serenading
her with that very song: "Poor ol' Dicey Reilly she has taken to
the sup! Poor ol' Dicey Reilly she could never give it up ... "
Peggy would laugh as we sang, and sometimes sang along.
Peggy even got up to dance, holding on to her walker and
moving to the beat of the band as they played Irish songs that
were as good for dancing to as for singing.
And Peggy was a great conversationalist. She could speak with
great knowledge and clarity of the issues of the day and of many
other topics. Peggy honed her conversational skills as a dinner
hostess in her home, breaking bread with family and friends of
family, and personal friends --- many of which were varied in
their backgrounds, educations, politics, ancestry, careers, and
other categories; Peggy loved the variety of people and cultivated
friendships with so many varied people! Her dinners were as
famous for her conversations as for her cooking, so I'm told
(I never dined at Peggy's home, we got together only at the
5 Points).
Peggy was an expert genealogist, and a seasoned traveler. She made
many trips to her ancestral country. Peggy also enjoyed an occasional
Old Fashioned Jameson or an Irish Mist. A mother of nine, she also
had 25 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Her husband of 52 years, Bill Reilly, preceded Peggy in death in 2007,
a sister and a grandchild had also preceded her. Peggy is now getting
caught up on family news and other items with them, and those of us
who were her family and friends were left a legacy of friendship,
craic, and love. Our beloved Dicey was 89 years young.
Requiescat in pace.
MEM
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