Mostly Offbeat: Excerpt From Another Book On Which "Momma"'s Working

Only As I Was Working On Another Book Did I Realize That...

I had inadvertently ended up naming Reilly for other matriarchs besides Rosalita "Rosa" McCoy Reilly and Alice Reilly Allen. Given that I'm Ashkenazi Jewish, meanwhile, that actually worked out on other levels as well: that is, naming Reilly after both a neighbor's belated senior puppy and my belated Reilly matriarchs became an observance of minhag Ashkenazi in regards to Ashkenazi matriarches as well the Reilly ones (and as I've said, Rosalita McCoy Reilly probably had a Anusi Sephardi father, anyway; so, minhag Ashkenazi usually doesn't apply to Sephardim unless they themselves are of Ashkenazi descent).

As I'm looking over the family tree to double check, I actually even see Ashkenazi matriarchs of Sephardi descent after whom I inadvertently named Reilly:

1. Rosalia Dudayová Nagyová (whose mother was the Sephardic Helena Légrádiová Dudayová with roots in Legrad, Croatia)
2. Rosalia Korschová Munková (one of whose granddaughters, by the way, would be Rosalie Trudnak Petak—Great-Grandma Czarnecki's favorite sister, as far as I can gather. From what I understand per one of her children, Great-Grandma was unfortunately a kokhlefel in making quite known what she thought about how they were handling Great-Grandaunt Rosalie's situation in her final days and after her death.)
3. Rosalia Czarnogurskÿová Krempaskÿová (and the sister for whom she was named. The original family name, by the way, was actually something like "Schwarzenberg" and later Slovakized or Magyarized to "Czarnogurskÿ" when her parents as Anusim left Kacwin for Veľká Franková. Also by the way, I assure you that our Krempaskÿs were Jewish and Anusim—you found no Marys, etc. for Jesus' mother among us. Besides, if you keep later naming patterns in mind, you can see having sons named "Mathias" and "Jacobus" after a daughter named "Maria" would certainly have raised questions, and Andreas Krempaskÿ had a son named "Jacobus" after he had my patriarch Mathias—unfortunately, it would've a little too Jewish for Slavic and Magyar tastes back then, especially as one can point to later naming patterns to see that "Mathias" and "Jacobus" had nothing to do with Matthew the apostle and James the brother of Jesus.)

I also see that I named her after other "Rosalias", Rosa, etc.—with Helena Rosalia Munková Reiff (one of Great-Grandma's aunts) and Rosa Loretta Reilly (a younger sister of Nana Allen) being among them. 

Meanwhile, I now wonder (since humans can rub off onto to their pets) if Reilly didn't get traits such as her curiosity, chutzpah (including her bad kind of tenacity), sprightliness, and chesed from her "Great-Great-Grandma" Czarnecki (and as for the chesed, I saw that firsthand: I remember that, for example, she was one of the few family members—if not the only family member whom treated me and my father's cousin Jamie—whom also has Cerebral Palsy—any differently than she treated her other descendants).

As for Nanas Allen and Reilly, meanwhile, Reilly got some traits (such as chutzpah) from them, too. Nonetheless, now that I write all of this out, I think that Reilly got a significant amount of traits from Great-Grandma Czarnecki—and now I think of the irony that it brings: she was named for two of her "Momma"'s maternal matriarches and is more like the paternal matriarches for whom she was inadvertently named! ("Der mentsh trakht un Got lakht.")

Reilly snuggling with "Hippo" while waiting for night-owl "Momma"

Reilly napping by also-inadvertently-named Camille Dominique (for Dominika Wierzbińska Czerniecka)