Welcome to the Family

Yes, we are, SO BLESSED! Our little Regan Marie came home from the hospital yesterday. Not-coincidentally, it was the first full day of sunshine that we've had in at least a month. The good Lord must have known that we had something special to celebrate.

And, celebrate we did, with a bottle of pink champagne that Papap had chilling for the past two weeks. Something tells me, there's going to be a lot of pink in Regan's future.

By virtue of her birth, Regan's been initiated into a sorority of very special women. Membership in this sorority comes with both priviledge and responsibility. It will be primarily, her mother's job to ensure that Regan understands the responsibilities associated with her initiation. I don't think Mom will mind though, if the rest of us help out a little too.

I, for one, will make sure that Regan knows the legacy of those that have come and gone before her - strong women all.


Regan Marie has been gifted with the name of her great, great, great grandmother, Catherine Regan Donovan. Catherine bore and raised eight children, and did so alone for many years, as her husband was afflicted with tuberculosis, sent to a sanatorium and later confined to a wheelchair.

She was a tough woman that held her family together through two world wars, suffered the death of two sons and helped raise another generation of children. She was a woman of substance and a woman of God that attended Mass weekly. And through it all, she was a lady.

Catherine Regan Donovan and her son, my grandfather, Michael Kenneth

Catherine's parents, came to this country from Ireland and brought with them the best of the Old World. They were of the immigrant class of hard working, family-first, individualists. They dreamed their dreams, and made them happen!

Mary McCauliff Regan, Catherine's mother

Young people often scoff at things of the past and set them aside for the trendy and modern. I hope that Regan is able to discern that there is value in history and lessons to be learned from listening.

Most importantly, I hope she learns by example, that there is value in femininity and that motherhood itself is a gift to be celebrated, not a burden.

Welcome to the family, dear-sweet-little Regan.