Archive for May, 2010

It was September of 1943 when Peggy Riley loaded up her brand new, yet very used green 1932 Model “A” Ford coupe with its rumble seat and Kelly green spoked wheels, blessed with questionable brakes and glass jars of water for a radiator that was wont to boiling-over.

Armed with a new bachelor’s degree from Emmanuel College in the Fenway in Boston and with a desire to teach, the single child of Pearl and Jimmy Riley, a local “poor man’s lawyer” from Lowell, drove northward into the relatively distant and far-off village of Newmarket, New Hampshire. Peggy had jumped at the offer despite its then-modest eleven hundred dollar teaching salary. World War II remained in full-swing and local jobs were scarce; so, it was time to venture forth.

Peggy Riley would experience a culture shock both within and without the classroom in Newmarket and then the next year in Farmington, New Hampshire. As a young school teacher in a poor small town in the mid-1940s, she would be looked upon for expertise and wisdom far beyond her years and skill solely by virtue of her profession, her credential as educator. One day, Peggy was called to witness the birth of a child of an underage student of hers where no doctor was sought or present. At 22 years of age, Peggy would find herself standing up to high school students nearly her age and twice her physical stature who would demonstrate a paucity of respect for themselves or for those in authority. And Godliness was not standard.

One day, Peggy found herself at the doctor’s office in need of new eye glasses since a young man in her classroom punched her in the face for her attempt to challenge him. The doctor, on learning of her circumstances as being the new young teacher in town, waived all fees for service or glasses as a grateful token of affection to one who would enter the community to serve.

By 1949, Peggy would return to the Merrimack Valley to accept a teaching position in Dracut, Massachusetts, then a small farming community bridging the City of Lowell with New Hampshire. Within a year Peggy Riley would meet a man named Bill O’Neill whom she would wed in 1953. By 1954, Peggy & Bill would be blessed by God with their first of four children, of whom I am the third.

After persisting with the Dracut school leadership in 1954 to allow her to continue to teach even after the customary “time of showing in pregnancy,” Peggy would set aside teaching within the classroom and step forward in the most honorable of professions, of housewife, full-time mother and wife, all with the heart of a teacher.

I am most grateful to God for my mother, Peggy O’Neilll on this mother’s day, a woman who relied upon God to do His work in her and to faithfully listen to Him for His leading. At 88 years young, Peggy continues to serve God, her husband and family in the great tradition of teacher pioneer. Happy Mother’s Day, Mum.

B. O’Neill, Jr.