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Alumna fondly recalls her Catholic education from the 1930s

Mary Coleman Maye ’39 turned 100 years old on February 26, 2022. She was born in Brighton at Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital. Her older brother John Coleman (Class of 1937), sisters Elsie (Class of 1941) and Catherine or “Rena” (Class of 1943), and her youngest brother Paul (Class of 1949) were all Saint Cols graduates.

As an adult, Mary talked about how idyllic it was to live in Brighton during the Depression. Life revolved around the parish and the school. Mary stayed a true Catholic throughout her life. She was very spiritual up to the end, and it was very important in the way she lived her life and how she raised her children.

“The church was the center of their life growing up. It was the community,” shared Mary’s son Bob Maye, who lives in Rye Beach, MA near where Mary spent the last years of her life in a nursing home facility.

“I loved Brighton,” said Mary during a Zoom interview with Saint Cols in June 2022. “It was the best place I ever lived.” Mary lived in Brighton until 2005. She highly valued her time at Saint Cols, crediting much of her faith and education to the nuns.

“My education at Saint Columbkille means everything,” recalled Mary. “The nuns taught us everything practical. Your parents didn’t have the time to teach you everything, so the nuns taught us every subject.”

“The Cantata [at Christmastime] was wonderful,” said Mary. She participated in the chorus (60 girls) and helped her own daughters participate by making their costumes. Mary’s daughter Patty Maye Wheeler ’68 played the Virgin Mary in the Cantata when she was in high school.

Mary married Bill Maye at St. Columbkille Parish on October 4, 1947 and had their reception at the Institute which was later the Junior High when her children attended. After the war, they weren’t able to find housing in Brighton, so Mary and Bill moved to Dorchester, then Jamaica Plain where Mary Ellen Maye Whyte (Class of 1966), Patty Maye Wheeler (Class of 1968) and Kathy Maye Cook (Class of 1969) were born.

Patty clearly remembers the day in November 1953 when “I was sent to kindergarten with my older sister and was brought to a new home at 83 Cresthill Road where my brother Bob was born in 1956.” In 1959, the family moved to 8 Priscilla Road (St. Gabriel's parish), where her younger brother Paul was born. Bob and Paul went to St. Gabriel’s, though Paul attended Saint Cols for four years in elementary school. The three Maye sisters all graduated from Saint Cols, which Mary loved.

Mary passed away in November 2022; her funeral was held at St. Columbkille Parish. Mary, her sisters, and her daughters, were/are all steadfast supporters of Saint Columbkille. Read more at www.stcps.org.

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