This is a small piece of a very large stone church in the seaside city of New Bedford, Massachusetts. This small city is known for its big fishing fleet and as the setting for Moby Dick. St. Lawrence the Martyr Church is where my grandfather John Joseph Lynch was baptized in 1895. His Irish-born father started his family here—not as a fisherman, but as a stonecutter. They stayed for two years before moving on to Providence, Rhode Island. Interestingly, the designer of this church was foreign-born Patrick Keely, also from Ireland.
The city the Lynches left behind, and the neighborhood the Church serves, still belongs to the working class. Twenty-one percent of New Bedford’s population is foreign born. In 1900, the percentage of immigrants was about the same, with the big groups being French Canadians, English, Portuguese, and Irish. The wave of immigrants is of Hispanics and Asians.
As I drew, what started out as a mild day, swiftly turned windy and raw. Seagulls screeched in the distance. Across the street, I saw the image of Mother Teresa on a house that I learned was a convent for her religious order. The church bell high in the tower tolled the wrong hour. Shivering with my pencil, I knew it was time to leave.
Later, my wife and I were warmed by a dinner of scallops and scrod, washed down with rum and dark beer. You can call me Ishmael.
Visiting the Relatives 