Father of the Man Author Dr. Peter Colman

Several years later, Nellie and Bernie married and lived the remainder of their lives in Manchester. Grammy ‘Nellie’ was my last surviving grandparent. At the time of her death, she was ninety-three. She had been a woman of stunning beauty, a stinging wit, and a playful, but typically no-nonsense demeanor. She loved to play ‘bino’ (bingo). She kept a sacred candy-tin of nickels to fuel her habit. However, she did have one major obstacle, one ‘fly in the ointment,’ to overcome during her days at the Hanover Street high-rise for the elderly: according to Nellie’s account, a kindly gentleman across the hall was always trying to get close to her and hug her in the narrow space between the opposite apartment doors (Nellie was well-endowed, even in her old age). Nellie repeatedly refused the daily onslaught of his passionate advances, and apparently fired a shot over his bow on one occasion, smacking him (gently, of course), warning him that there would be dire consequences to his aging ship’s tackle if he continued his uninvited attempts to board her vessel! Grammy may not have been a paradigm of moral virtue, but she was a hard-working, generous woman, who knew how to beat off a stray dog. Unfortunately (though the Colman and Moy families are no exception to the universal rule, to be sure), the proclivity toward infidelity and insidious, but nearly imperceptible forms of corruption in the otherwise sturdy trunk of the Colman family tree had begun much earlier, and had spread to other branches.

Nellie’s Dad, William James Moy, had also had a reputation as a ‘tomcat,’ a womanizer. My great-grandmother, Blanche (Callahan) Moy, had uncovered his infidelity, and had banished him from the old Auburn farmstead for six entire months. As the story goes, ‘Grandpa Moy’ finally came to his senses and crawled back to the Auburn farm. ‘Grandma Moy’ threatened him, and warned him that if he ever dared to dip his wick elsewhere again, she’d throw him away for good! Grandpa Moy had gone perilously close to the abyss, had cheated on Grandma, and had nearly lost his happy earthly home, as well as his hope of salvation.









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