Brenna Elizabeth Sheeley
I claim as grand-daughter
for by now, the idea of “step”
is irrelevant.
She is a bundle of energy,
brilliant imagination and
giggling enthusiasm.
Need to laugh, find Brenna.
She is the only daughter of my
____ daughter,

Cara Elizabeth Nucci,
a contradiction in motion.
A hard working, fire breathing,
worrying, loving, single Mommy
comedian who laughs, loves
and explodes with the same,
surprising unpredictability,
who is the only daughter of
and as much alike as unlike
her Mother, my beloved wife
these 21 years,

Nancy Ann Lehmann-Nucci-Greenman,
the joy of my life,
my centering keel.
That this loving, curious, sensual,
patient, bell-tone laughing, generous,
self-assured, forgiving, woman
loves me
gives me hope for myself.
That she is the way she is,
is praise to both herself and
to being the only daughter of
my mother-in-law,

Shirley Katherine Migliorino-Lehmann,
friendly,feisty, frugal,vocal fan of the
New York Yankees and, in particular,
Williams and Matsui,
a no nonsense Italian-German
child of the Depression-World War II-shaped
Greatest Generation,
the only daughter of
Brenna’s Great Grand Ma,

Mae Elizabeth Zeis-Migliorino,
a tall, blue-eyed, mahogany haired
German who loved Italian food and
one Italian man.
She died when Shirley was five,
missing all of the lives of
Nancy, Cara and Brenna,
but given her place here so
Brenna may know and remember.
__________________________________

These two companion pieces,
“The Generations of GG” and
“Brenna’s Line”
are to help them keep
the memories of their
Mother to Daughter connections
alive and present in their minds,
with the hope that these two
very distant, somehow related,
cousins-in-law-by-marriage-steps
may meet and marvel at their
geneologies similarities,
and vow to look for
a husband of the sea
(or not)
and to be as free
as they can be.