Msgr. Gallagher, beloved priest, has passed away

The Reverend Monsignor John A. Gallagher, the retired longtime pastor of St. Paul the Apostle Church in Yonkers, passed away on April 1.

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Update: Brien and Dan attended the funeral Mass at St. Paul's on April 6. The church was packed with parishioners past and present and others who knew Msgr. Gallagher. The main celebrant was Bishop Gerald T. Walsh, the Archdiocese of New York's episcopal vicar for parts of Westchester County. He was joined by 38 other priests. The homily was given by Msgr. Patrick Carney, retired pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Hartsdale, a long-time friend of Msgr. Gallagher. Some 30 or so nuns of the Sisters of Life also attended and provided a choir for the service.

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Those of us family members who grew up in St. Paul's parish fondly remember "Father Gallagher." He was just a few years out of seminary when Daniel and Lorraine moved into the parish in the late 1950s to raise their family. At the time, he was the most junior of three priests assigned to St. Paul's, and frequently visited the parish school where Danny, Kathy, Brien and Kevin were all students. He also oversaw the training and scheduling of altar boys.

Father Gallagher later became Monsignor Gallagher and pastor of St. Paul's, serving in that capacity for 25 years before retiring in 2003. During that time, Kevin and his wife, Kathy, were raising their own family in the parish, and Shanna and Kevin also attended St. Paul's School.

Msgr. Gallagher poses with family members at McLean Avenue St. Patrick's Parade in 2012

On the light side, he was known for speeding through the standard prayers at Mass and giving scholarly but convoluted sermons. Much more importantly, he was a devout, kind and caring minister to his parishioners. We especially remember his visits during Daniel's final illness. Although retired, the monsignor celebrated Daniel's funeral Mass.

2007 NY Daily News photo

Behind the scenes, his life story was quite extraordinary. Msgr. Gallagher was the longtime primary caregiver for his brother, Matthew, who was profoundly disabled from birth. His devotion to his brother is detailed in this 2012 article from Catholic New York.

Msgr. Gallagher wrote a book about his life with Matthew, titled "On Becoming a Person." It was featured in a 2007 article in the New York Daily News. Matthew passed away a few years ago.


Here is Msgr. Gallagher's obituary in the Westchester newspapers.

Vivien makes a career move

Today is Vivien's birthday, and along with wishing her the best, we'll take the opportunity to pass along an update on her career.

Vivien recently started as new job as catering sales manager at the InterContinental New York Barclay hotel in Manhattan.

The InterContinental is just across East 49th Street from the Waldorf-Astoria, where Vivien previously worked. She joined the Waldorf in the fall of 2013 as a catering coordinator. Previously, she worked at the Lexington Brass restaurant and at Brookdale Senior Living.

Happy Easter to all our family

Brien's Annual St. Patrick's Parade Watch Party

What's everyone looking at?

The annual St. Patrick's Day Parade on McLean Avenue in Yonkers marches right past Brien's apartment, and for a fourth consecutive year, he hosted a parade-watch party for family and friends.

The parade gets bigger each year, and so does Brien's party! Owen came down from Massachusetts and Austin came up from Florida to join the festivities this year, and Beatrice made her debut.

Here's an album of photos from this Great Day for the Irish.

Stephanie performs in clarinet ensemble

From Clarinet Solo & Ensemble

As promised, Cathy sends us this video of Stephanie performing in a clarinet ensemble at the Hilliard Darby High School Winter Band Concert. This is "Finale" by Mozart. Very impressive!

Update from the Saratoga side of the family

Dan reports: I called Aunt Pat on her birthday March 4 - but she was out celebrating! We caught up a few days later. She said she is doing well, and updated me on her daughter Mary, grandchildren Brennan, Brienna and Shannon, and great-grandchildren Brooklyn Rae, Brennan Alexander and Cash.

Mary is very busy but enjoying her role as director of the Stepping Stones 1 Head Start facility in the Lansingburgh section of Troy, N.Y.  "It's a lot of work but she loves it," her mother said.

Shannon's senior photo

In October, Mary traveled to St. Thomas for a week-long conference. The days were filled with work sessions, but she managed to squeeze in some swimming every day. Mary also continues to coach the swimming team at the Saratoga Regional YMCA.

Shannon is now a senior at Catholic Central High School, also in Troy. She and Mary commute together from Saratoga to Troy. After graduation this spring, Shannon's plan is to join the U.S. Air Force.

Shauna Rae's birthday in January

Brennan, an ex-Marine, is currently studying at Schenectady Community College and coaching sports at Gloversville Middle School. After completing his service in late 2014, he was employed at the GlobalFoundaries semiconductor plant in Malta until a recent wave of layoffs there.

Brennan's wife, Shauna Rae, recently completed her B.A. at Empire State College and works in the Gloversville school system. They live in nearby Broadalbin. Their 4-year-old daughter, Brooklyn Rae, is in pre-school and will start kindergarten next fall. Their son, Brennan Alexander, will have his second birthday in July.

Brienna is currently working at the Saratoga Casino and Raceway. She had worked for several years at a local restaurant, but it recently closed. Her son, Cash, is also four and in pre-school, and will start kindergarten in Saratoga in the fall.

Aunt Pat sends her best wishes to all the family!

Beatrice celebrates first birthday

March 4, 2015

Genevieve and John's daughter Beatrice celebrated her first birthday this past weekend.

"Can't believe how time has flown," said her mom. No kidding!

Stephanie excels in clarinet performance (Updated)

From Clarinet Solo

Cathy provides this video of daughter Stephanie giving a clarinet performance at her church.

"This is the piece Stephanie performed last month for the Ohio Music Education Association Solo & Ensemble event. She received a score of Excellent," Cathy writes. "She performed it in church this morning and received thunderous applause and numerous accolades!"

The piece, "Allegro Moderato, Concerto No. 1" by C.M. von Weber, is about six minutes long and quite beautiful. Watch and enjoy the music!

This week, Stephanie will be performing an ensemble piece at the Hilliard Darby High School Winter Band Concert, so we look forward to seeing more video.

(This post has been updated to include the name of the work and to correct that Stephanie's performance last month was at an OMEA judged event.)

Julie sets out on new career path

Logo by Christine

After years of working for advertising agencies large and small, Julie has set up her own business, Franchise Falcon.

As a franchise consultant, Julie works to connect entrepreneurs with franchise companies that match their interests and experience.

As stated on the Franchise Falcon website: "Just as a falcon surveys the landscape to find exactly what it’s hunting for, our 'bird’s eye' view of the franchise market can help locate the best opportunity for you."

Franchise Falcon is part of a network that represents about 500 franchising operations in a wide range of businesses, including senior care, educational services, auto repair, hair styling and many other fields.

Liz and friends enjoy Florida fantasy-lands

Liz and some of her friends took a February vacation to Orlando and visited the Disney and Universal theme parks.

"Busy being a princess," Liz wrote on Facebook.

She added, "Epcot's way more fun when you're an adult."

And of course, Liz and her friends also revisited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. That train, in case you somehow don't recognize it, is the Hogwarts Express.

Great photo: Mom & daughter & cake

We just have to share this photo of Genevieve on her recent birthday, joined by daughter Bea to blow out the candle on her cake. Bea looks ready to steal a bite!

Nolan receives sacrament of Baptism

Nolan was baptized this week, and proud Grandpa Owen sent along these photos.

Above, Nolan poses with his parents, Gerrit and Angela, and grandparents Rick and Louise.

Here he is with his mom and his godmother, Aunt Lynn.


Owen writes, "He wasn't too pleased getting some water in his nose but basically all went well."

Below is a photo taken on Owen's birthday in January.

Rebecca in national curling competition this week

Rebecca writes: "We're in FLORIDA for CURLING!"

Strange but true, the USA Curling national championships are being held this week in Jacksonville, Fla. And Rebecca is there as a member of "Team Meechai," one of seven teams competing for this year's women's title.

You can follow their progress at USA Curling's website. And you can watch live coverage online on TESN - where the schedule includes Rebecca's team vs. a Minnesota team on Monday at noon.

Listen to Dan's musical mix on Birch Street Radio

Logo by Christine

Dan writes: Some of you might remember that, nearly three years ago, I started up an online radio station, Birch Street Radio, on a service called Live365. There's been a link to it in the right-hand sidebar of this blog ever since.

The station attracted a small but greater-than-zero number of listeners who apparently liked my peculiar assortment of old and new rock, folk-rock and other types of music.

Alas, Live365 shut down on Jan. 30, for reasons having to do with a new royalty rate structure for web-streaming of copyright performances. Having gotten a few weeks' warning of Live365's demise, I quickly latched onto another webcasting platform, called Radionomy, and rebuilt Birch Street Radio there. It's worked out pretty well so far - and again, has been getting small handfuls of listeners from out there on that world wide web.

There's a catch: As a commercial-supported operation, Radionomy requires its stations to reach a certain level of listenership within nine months to stay on their platform. So I faced a choice: Give up on my little radio hobby - or step it up and work to build an audience. Well, hey, I've always wanted to run a radio station, so I'm giving it a try. The station now has its own web site, its own Facebook page and a Twitter feed where I've managed to get it noticed by some small record labels and indie artists.

So I have two messages for readers of Birch Street Web:

• First - Please have a listen! Maybe you'll like it! It's a mix of new rock and rock-ish music, classic rock and folk-rock, bands and singer-songwriters from the 60s to now. You'll hear well-known and obscure songs from stars and unknowns. Once in a while you'll hear me say something pithy.
• Second - I called the station Birch Street Radio when I started it as a sort of spin-off of this blog -- but now I'm being careful to keep it completely separate, with no connection to this family-only site. So I'm not even posting a link to it here. You can find it easily just by Googling "Birch Street Radio" (but skip any old links to Live365). The Birch Street Radio web page gives you various ways to tune in and listen. 

Thanks for your support!

A delayed Julie's-birthday gathering in Maryland

Julie planned to visit her parents on her birthday weekend, but a little blizzard got in the way. So she and Dan and Andy made the trip a week later and spent this past weekend with Hugh and Dolores at the Oak Crest community in suburban Baltimore. They were joined for dinner in the community's "pub" by Doug, Lisa and Liz (Lisa took this photo).

Good times in the big snow

Besides the digging and shoveling, family members had some fun in the snow on Sunday after the blizzard passed. Here are some photos collected from Facebook. We'd always like to add more!

Bea and Dad. Do we dare venture outside?

Yes! And isn't this cool! Snowy Central Park.

Just chillin'

Xander and his friend relax in their fort.

Meanwhile, Brian takes care of serious business.

Now that's a snowman!

Blizzard of 2016 brings beauty, hard work

Kathy shares this beautiful photo of her house as the Blizzard of '16 was winding down Saturday night. A National Weather Service spotter in nearby Scarsdale measured 19 inches of snow from the storm.

Reports for the Baltimore suburbs were in the range of 30 inches. Doug and Lisa managed to do quite a job of digging a path to their door on Saturday night.

Here at Birch Street HQ, where the snow and wind continued until late Saturday night, we waited until Sunday morning to tackle the shoveling. By then the sun was shining brightly on the thick coat of snow. Dan measured 20 inches, while an NWS spotter nearby reported 24 inches. And those drifts by the car were certainly higher than that.

Christine takes a brief break

Making good progress

Nanette took this picture from her home on Shelter Island. Daughter Courtney, in Florida, wrote: "Not going to lie -- a li'l jealous of my mom's winter wonderland."

The storm also reached up to Cape Cod, where Owen took this next photo in his driveway. "It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," he writes, "but I wish I had a two-car garage."

"My guess is we got at least a foot," Owen says. "My plow-and-shovel guy came twice to clear the snow, and the roads are not bad, so I'm not stuck in the house. Hope there's no repeat of last year!" Just about a year ago, he and brother Austin, visiting from Florida, were snowed in by a blizzard that dropped about 2 1/2 feet on the Cape (See that story).

Now back to Maryland, where Hugh and Dolores were able to watch as workers at their Oak Crest Village home shoveled the path from the entrance to the parking lot. Hugh then started working on digging out their car.

The Blizzard of 2016 climbs up the East Coast

Updated at 5 p.m. with new info and photos

We hope all our family members in the path of today's blizzard are hunkered down safely!


In Virginia, Marie reports it started snowing about noon Friday, and during the night "came down so hard you could hear it hitting the house." When the snow and wind let up a bit on Saturday morning, Xander was more than ready to venture out. "Judging by how high it is on Xander, it's got to be a foot and a half so far," Marie said. And the snow was expected to continue all day.

Lisa sends along this photo of the front yard at the Riderwood house, where the brick wall along the street was just about buried by 2 p.m. As you can see from the pre-storm photo, that wall's a couple feet high at least, but presumably the snow is drifting. The pre-positioned measuring is hard to read, but it had shown 15 inches at 9 a.m. so it's probably over 1.5 feet.

UPDATE: The wall is gone! Fully covered as of 4:30 p.m. "Still coming down," Lisa says. "Twenty-seven inches in 25 hours."



Liz adds these photos from downtown Baltimore.


Here are Birch Street Headquarters, no one's going anywhere for the day, and we figure we'll just let the snow pile up and deal with it tomorrow.


In this 11 a.m. view of the back yard, you can kind of make out the picnic table in the foreground. It looks like it had 8-10 inches on it so far. By 2 p.m. it was at least a foot, and the forecast called for it to continue falling until midnight or later.

UPDATE: At 3:20 p.m. Dan measured 18 inches in the front yard and trudged through it to take this photo of HQ from the street.

Let us know how you're doing and send us your snow pictures! birchstreetweb@gmail.com