This is a photo of my parents, Anne Connolly and David Carroll, right after they were married in Ireland. They met at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin where my father worked as a doctor and my mother was a nurse. In 1971, he was offered a position at UCSF in San Francisco. After he was offered the job, they got married in Ireland and then moved to California.
My older sister Aisling was born in 1972, I was born in 1973 and my brother Rory was born in 1977. My father worked on staff at St. Mary’s Hospital in San Francisco as the infectious disease consultant. In 1980, he opened an internal medicine practice in Stonestown, San Francisco. After a short illness, my father died of lymphoma on August 10, 1981. My mother raised three of us on her own and she was greatly supported by all our Irish and American friends in the Bay Area. She returned to the medical field and worked at a pediatrician’s office in Marin County for 15 years.
On New Year’s Eve 1994 she was introduced by friends to Christopher Cochrane, a Scottish businessman. They were married on March 21, 1988. Although he’s not Irish, he is a fellow Celt, and Chris has been a great addition to our family. ♦
Leave a Reply