I insisted that we visit a hospital, but she firmly refused and begged me to take her home. When I questioned the unfamiliar suitcase, she explained that her blue one had broken and Margaret had given her a replacement.

The camera battery died before I could examine anything else. I returned to the living room carrying it, and Mom began crying as soon as she saw what I had discovered.

“His name was Michael when he was born. I named him after my father.”

She explained that Michael had been born on March 3, 1963, at St. Brigid’s Home for Unwed Mothers in Erie. She was seventeen, unmarried, and terrified of the consequences of her pregnancy.

His father was Danny Reilly, a young man from her neighborhood who had enlisted in the Navy before learning she was pregnant. He died when the submarine USS Thresher sank in April 1963, leaving behind a son he never knew existed.

Mom’s parents had sent her away during the pregnancy, telling neighbors she was visiting relatives. At St. Brigid’s, she befriended another young mother named Margaret Feeney, who became the only person who knew her secret.