Stella: / the early years

Stella was the youngest of four children

born to the powerful Furguelle family,
landlords of our tenement, the great and frantic

tenement designated by the City of Fall River

as 1017 Bedford Street, first floor, heat and hot water included.

The elder Furguelle's took the lead in proposing
and planning future church functions;

bizarres, festas, bake-sales, installations, honorariums,

and of course as prime movers to Columbus Day festivities.   

They were also active at neighborhood weddings and funerals,

clearly recognizable as front-runners, whether standing,

dancing, sitting, or lying in repose.

We remember Stella, namesake to the stalwart matriarch, as a shy,

retiring young woman, unremarkable, and as someone simply being there.