Summer 2012 - The Mill Hill Missionaries

Summer 2012 Advocate:Layout 1 19/07/2012 12:14 Page 24Mill Hill Missionaries in the U.S.A. in recent times - Left to right: Fr. Brian Coffey, Fr.Bob O’Neill, Fr. Terry Lee, Fr. Bart Daly (author of the article), Fr. Matt Grier (now inGlasgow), Fr. Guido Gockel and Fr. Emile Frische.called Pittstown that was about one hour’sdrive from Slingerlands. Fr. Ed. English wasthe parish priest. He was also the Director ofRadio and Television for the Albany Diocese.On Sunday morning, I would drive fromPittstown to the mission church in Grafton tocelebrate the mass there. Afterwards it wasthe custom to have breakfast at the hotel – theonly one in the town- and to this day I rememberLouis Daygle who with his wife ranthe hotel. It was in the Pittstown area, closeto the Vermont border, that I first experiencedreal snow.Precisely one year and a month after comingto America, November 22, 1963, PresidentJohn Kennedy was assassinated as hismotorcade drove through downtown Dallas.It was one of America’s darkest days andeverybody would remember where he or shewas when the news broke. I had just emergedfrom the Post Office in Albany where I hadbeen sent to change the Mill Hill addressfrom Slingerlands to Albany, New York. I rememberthe hush in the street and peoplespeaking in whispers. Everything hadchanged and America went into mourning.‘Have a safe trip home’In 1965 I was assigned to Africa, to Kenya- the Diocese of Kisumu. After a five yeartour there I was reassigned to America, whereI have been ever since.Last June as I was boarding a flight forNew York at Dublin airport, the American officialat immigration examined my passport,and handing it back to me said ‘have a safetrip home’.So I was going home, home to America,where it all began some 50 years ago.23