Bernie Poole's Personal Pages

Yes, I was a war baby and, Yes, that's me in my mother's arms. My oldest sister, Mary, is standing on the right; she's barely 9 years old.  My oldest brother, Gerard, who was not yet 7, is not in the picture, so I'm guessing he took it (and did a good job). Amazingly, there's not much more than eight years between the birth of my oldest sister and me--eight children in a little over eight years!  And here's the kicker: mom's already carrying the 9th child, Francis, who was born about nine months after this picture was taken. Three more were to follow, making a total of 12 children in all.