Afterword I: Mike Sherin

The abrupt end to these lovely reminiscences seems to illustrate Uncle Frank's down-to-earth, practical manner. For some reason or other, he was not prepared to continue the narrative, the paragraph, or even the sentence, so he simply stopped.
A few additional notes: My mother, who died in 1999 at 97, married my father, Jim Byrne, in 1923. When we were children, we were amused by her full name: Helen Eugene Cecilia Figenshu Byrne.
Mom remembered many of the people, locations, and situations mentioned by Uncle Frank--in particular, the hired man, Mike Sherin.
"Mike started working for the Byrne family on the day your father was baptized (1898)," she told me. "Daddy's mother gave Mike his meals before the family ate; he didn't sit down with them, " she said. "He had no family and yes, he used to go on benders every once in a while, but it didn't happen often. He was such a good and faithful worker when he was sober that nobody seemed to mind."
Mother was of German descent, but wasn't the tall, blonde type. She was a natural brunette with deep brown eyes; she tanned very dark as a girl. She was petite, probably no more than five feet tall when she was young. Mike noted her appearance and when she wasn't around, would say to my father, "Well, Jim, where's that little yellar gal of yours?"