THE JOY OF THE JOURNEY

About the Book

Peggy Tanner takes us along for the journey as she moves with her family, in 1934, from the South Bronx to rural Ireland.  Her  grandfather plays a large part in her early life.  We learn of many of the customs and a way of life that is no more.  She grows up with a loving father, mother and brother in a large house in the village of Kilgarvan.  Although poor, they are never hungry.  She is very close to her father, when he dies suddenly, in 1952 she is heartbroken.

Before she turns eighteen, a chance encounter with a retired nurse propels Peggy  to London, to study nursing.  She refers to the  degrading experience of immigration as “being herded like cattle.” During her early days as a student nurse, she takes us around London and into a laboratory where she is surrounded by  “Fetusii floating in formaldehyde.” A severe illness contracted on the wards keeps her hospitalized for a year.  Peggy  bounces back and reaches her goal, to become a State Registered Nurse.

Following an encounter with a stalker, she decides to return to New York, but becomes disenchanted when she is introduced to tenement living in high-rise apartments.  Michael Quill is a close friend, and his brother John becomes her surrogate father.  She spends a summer in Bayshore, Long Island, where she meets a handsome intern from Naples.  When he returns to Italy, she returns to England.  After a period of uncertainty, she comes back to New York, takes a course in obstetrics and earns her license as a Registered Nurse.  She meets her husband-to-be in a chance encounter at a crowded bar in Upper Manhattan, when she offers to light his cigarette. After their marriage, they settle in New Rochelle and start a family.

Peggy’s journey is filled with amusing anecdotes.  Among them are an account of what New York was like in the fifties, tales of steamship travel across the Atlantic, and a vacation in Paris where they find themselves staying in a romantic whorehouse. During a visit to Ireland, they are mistaken for the perpetrators of “The Great Train Robbery” (1963).  Peggy’s story ends with her being held hostage with her baby at a hospital until the bill is paid.  She mentions her encounters with well-known personalities from infamous “members of the mob” to such famous ones as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Mike Wallace and Jerry Lewis. A parade of fond recollections spices up the memoirs of Peggy Tanner.

About the Author

Peggy Tanner was born in New York and raised in the Southwest of Ireland. She received her education from Irish National Schools, English Nursing Schools, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, College of New Rochelle and Iona College. She served as a Registered Nurse in England and New York for thirty years. Married to Henry Tanner, she raised two children. Her writing has been published in Irish and American periodicals. Her first book TALES OF TWO COUNTRIES, (Blackstone Press 1997) was acclaimed in the IRISH ECHO as being “in strong contrast to the difficult days recounted by Frank McCourt.” SHORT VERSION: Peggy Tanner was born in New York and raised in the Southwest of Ireland. Her writing has been published in Irish and American periodicals. Her first book TALES OF TWO COUNTRIES was acclaimed in the IRISH ECHO as being “in strong contrast to the difficult days recounted by Frank McCourt.”