My latest collage illustrates the memory of the eldest Murphy girl. She and her father visited 265 McCord Street in the spring of 1948, hoping to find a new apartment for the family-there were eleven children with one on the way. Mary Elizabeth was proud of the new blue coat she had been given for Easter. While her father locked up, she stood outside, listening to the sound of children, coming from the windows above. Everything seemed fine until cold brown liquid came pouring out of the sky onto her beautiful new coat. The woman living on the floor above had emptied her teapot. Her father cursed Madame "P" and so began the animosity between them.
Mr. Murphy decided to take the apartment and move his family to Griffintown from Verdun. After more than sixty years, Mary Elizabeth speaks about the ruined coat as though it happened yesterday.
