Dear Hearts,
January 13th is the 128th anniversary of the birth of Anna Mildred Conick Sullivan, also known as Booma or Mom. She was the wife of John Jeremiah "Lefty" Sullivan, mother of eight: Big Sully, Bob and Auntie Nan and Auntie Margaret, and four other little babies, two of whom only took a few breaths, and one who lived a month, John Jeremiah, Jr., and one who only lived an hour, James Patrick.
Big Sully was born next, was the first to live, and got James Patrick's name, in the Irish tradition. There were so many babies who died, during the Famine, and then later from the endemic lung malformations from the malnutrition of the Famine in the generations afterward, that it was very common to have two Johns, James, Patricks, Marys, Margarets etc. The first one would die too early and the Irish felt that they were maybe still there somehow and just got the next body.
She lived hard with those losses, and there is a story of when Baby John died in the crib right before them, she pulled Lefty to his knees and they offered the little baby back to God with thanks for the few weeks and hope for the future. She somehow had the ability to summon great reserves of strength. She said the baby belonged to God, God had given them the baby for a few minutes, and now they would give him back.
Lefty said she was his entire strength in those few minutes, because he was ready to die himself, after watching his little one lose that fight. He was very tender--she was a mother to the core, but tough as an iron bar.
She received three, THREE, telegrams from the War Department saying her son's plane had been hit on three different occasions. The plane was seen going down, no chutes, and he was believed to be dead. Booma wept until she was out of tears, and then word would come that he had made it back to England, and then a few months later, another death gram. That would have been her fifth lost son.
She and her two sisters, Aunt Eleanor Mitchell and Aunt Alice Buckley, were Lefty's bridge partners for most of his young adulthood, and man, could Booma play bridge. She would skin you out in one hour flat and leave you dripping blood on the floor.
She used to make private moments with each of her grandchildren, washing their hands and faces and asking them about school and baseball. She loved baseball, but would not allow anyone to go to Cubs park, and she hated Comiskey for the way he had treated Lefty and the other White Sox.
The branch springing from Jim called her Booma, and the branch springing from Bob called her Mom, and she called Lefty "Sully."
She died in Phoenix, in the bosom of her family on August 8, 1979, at age 85.
Happy Birthday, Booma, Mom, Anna, and please look out for us all, and lend us your strong heart. God bless us and save us and keep us from harm.
Love, Patty
