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Thirty-plus years earlier, John J. O’Conner told his youngest daughter, Eddy, her share of the family assets was held in trust on her behalf. O’Connor, family scion, the beneficiary of substantial investments in old growth forest lands throughout the middle U.S. and rare metals mining operations made by his grandfather and father, did little more than enjoy the fruits of their past labors.
O’Conner held somewhat conflicting beliefs—not unusual at the time. On the one hand, female progeny must be protected from unsuitable suitors interested more in the money than the girl. Yet, on the other hand, his daughters’ financial future was the responsibility of their respective future husbands. The real money and power passed from one male member of each generation to a son, or sons, in the next.
JJ, as he was known in family circles, was devoutly religious and lived a true American Catholic lifestyle. He married a suitable woman from an established Catholic family whose piety so exceeded his that she was known among her children as “Sister June.” J.J. and June shared their wealth and good fortune with their church and their philanthropy was well known and regarded within their community.
JJ’s grandfather and father were committed Anti-Communists and Anti-Semites, incapable of separating the two. His father saw himself as his generation’s steward of this perspective, and he succeeded beyond his familial role in this regard. With one exception, his children loathed Communists and Jews even more than their antecedents.
Eddy was a committed Catholic and had she been borne to an impoverished family she would have taken her vows in the sisterhood. However, Eddy thoroughly enjoyed her life of privilege. While she was unwilling to marry, and subjugate her will to that of a husband, she certainly enjoyed the other choices her family’s wealth afforded. She doted on her many nieces and nephews whom she saw as her own children left under the care of people she both knew and trusted. And, in return, they both adored and doted on her.
Born prior to World War II, she was too young to understand the hatred her grandfather and father directed toward the Soviets when Berlin and Germany were divided in two. Truth be told, she found the teachings of her faith a better world view even though the Church was abundantly clear about the long-term prospects of the Communists and the Jews.
The presidential election of John F. Kennedy in 1960, brought her family’s views, and their Irish ancestry, to a fevered pitch. Family dinner conversation was besotted with the question: What could the O’Conner’s do to defeat the Communists, suppress the Jews, and help their beloved President Kennedy. This question held significant appeal to Eddy. Defeating the Communists would serve her atavistic aspirations, and serve her Church in the good fight against the godless Communists.
Eddy’s grandfather was a schoolmate and family friend of William J. Donovan. “Wild Bill,” founder of the Office of Strategic Services in World War II, was a frequent guest and dinner companion at the ancestral home in Buffalo, NY, as well as the family’s newer estate safely outside of the nation’s capital in Arlington, VA.
Starting in early 1961, JJ spent almost all his time at the Arlington manse. His wife, however, preferred to remain in the more familiar and navigable society of Buffalo. In her mother’s absence, Eddy became the official hostess and surrogate for her mother in the family’s Arlington outpost.
Eddy’s life took on new meaning and purpose well beyond her years.
The assassination of President Kennedy was devastating to the country, but it was especially traumatic for the O’Conner family and Eddy. JJ decamped for Buffalo following the funeral where he remained until his death a decade later. Kennedy’s death squelched JJ’s life force. True to his beliefs, and unwilling to accept the findings of the Kennedy Commission, JJ held the Communists and Jews responsible for the assassination and the end of the Irish dream of a most honored place in American society and politics.
Eddy preferred to stay behind, and with her mother’s blessing, she continued to host both informal and formal events attended by foreign dignitaries and Washington’s intelligence illuminati. These events cloaked meetings between the CIA and ambassadorial staff that were otherwise improbable and challenging to arrange across the Potomac River in Washington, DC. While Arlington was a suburb of the nation’s capital, in the mid-to-late 1960’s, the Potomac was a boundary between serious press coverage and its very poor relation, the society press.
Eddy O’Conner served an important role in the conduct of diplomacy, and its gritty cousin, the conduct of spy craft. It should have been enough for Eddy, but it wasn’t. Yes, she was involved, but only on the periphery. She wanted more. Much more.
Even from the far reaches of Buffalo, JJ could have arranged a more meaningful role for his youngest daughter. Unfortunately, the best JJ could offer Eddy was his indifference to her pleas for his sponsorship. Still, he didn’t stand in her way. Surprisingly, her mother June did what JJ would not.
June’s connections were far more ecclesiastical than her husband’s. And, June suspected the Church shared a bond with the CIA. So, she took an unexpected route to the country’s intelligence leadership on behalf of her daughter. With June’s connections, and more importantly her approval, Eddy joined a small religious order in the U.S. with a strong connection to German monasteries and convents. Next stop: East Berlin by way of Rome.
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Religious orders in Europe, especially those in eastern Europe, were old school. As a Catholic nun, Eddy—now Sister Evangeline—lived a cloistered, contemplative life where she took a vow of celibacy, obedience, and poverty. Poverty was a previously unknown concept to Eddy. She benefitted from her family’s wealth and she dined, shopped, and lived a life where money was the grease that made the wheels of life turn. By contrast, Sister Evangeline had to willingly renounce her ownership of all property, goods, and wealth, including—but especially—her trust fund. What little she required would be provided by God and her Church.
Eddy’s mother made this clear when June’s efforts on her behalf made Eddy’s service to her country possible. Eddy’s efforts, however noble, would come at a cost. She would remain an O’Conner, but her family’s wealth would be forever directly denied her. June underscored the point that Eddy’s vows marked a turning point from which there would be no return. She would henceforth belong to the Church, not to the O’Conner’s.
JJ, his religious devotions beyond question, took a different view of these matters. Unknown to his wife and other children, JJ established a secret trust fund for Eddy, the assets of which would pass into her sole control upon her “retirement.”
Beyond any doubt, Sister Evangeline was the wealthiest resident of the convent in the San Juan Islands. With expert stewardship, the financial managers engaged by her late father managed to build Evangeline’s wealth many times greater than her family’s initial trust investment. Unfortunately, Evangeline could not “retire” and take ownership of the fund until her mother died.
Sister June was a true believer in every sense of the term. June believed one fulfilled one’s obligations to society and the Church—but especially to the Church—no matter what. Evangeline knew she could walk away from her vocation and her vows only after the death of her mother.
Two weeks after the visit by Alice Linda, June O’Conner, long living matriarch of the Buffalo O’Conner’s, passed away in her sleep.
Following the death of her mother, Eddy O’Conner emerged from the convent, released by the Church from her vows.
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San Francisco, California
Eddy O’Conner thought it best to rent an apartment in San Francisco rather than enter a rushed purchase. Quite frankly, she lacked the self-confidence to pick the right home and to decorate it in her style. Indeed, what was her style after all those many years when her parents purchased the manse in Arlington? Her room at the convent, like all the rooms to which she’s been assigned over the years, was monastic. A single bed. A small desk. A chest of drawers. Not even a mirror. The vow of poverty.
If Eddy’s lack of confidence prevented her purchase of her first home, then selecting a wardrobe paralyzed her with fear. Wearing a simple polyester blouse, well-worn denim jeans, and simple black flats, she decided to find someone to guide her at Nordstrom’s.
She remained in Nordstrom’s for the balance of the day not emerging until the store officially closed. The store manager arranged for a car to return Eddy to her newly rented flat, and her purchases were delivered by store personnel, unpacked, and put away.
Most of the prior day’s shopping was fulfilling, thrilling even, except for purchasing make-up and perfume. The simple act of applying her make-up, rather than lifting her spirits, saddened her instead. Strangely, throughout the decades of her vows she kept close the memory of her mother teaching a teenaged Eddy about make-up. Only then did she feel the full impact of her mother’s passing and all the shared experiences they might have had over those many years apart.
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Her financial arrangements were complete including her first checking account, debit card, and charge cards. She now had a purse in which to keep these new items for which she had no prior need. She ceased using public transport in favor of a hired vehicle and driver. She frequented a far better class of eateries and restaurants where she paid the bill. She joined an exclusive health club which assigned her a trainer.
Eddy “took” massages—both facial and whole body—had her hair styled and learned to enjoy pedicures and manicures. She even purchased an Apple laptop and iPhone finding a fondness for the young ill-at-ease woman at the Genius Bar whom she visited repeatedly over the next several days.
Buying things in the modern world required adaptation. Spending her new-found wealth, however, was like renewing a long-lost friendship. She was surprised to discover that it was like riding a bike. You never forgot how.
It took Eddy days to emerge from her chrysalis formation and engage with the world in a way she had not since her final days in Arlington over 40 years ago. Reading the electronic news sites, she learned about the radiological incident in the Mojave Desert. Using Google, her new-found friend, she delved into topics, like dirty bombs.
At the end of her research she remembered her conversations with Alice Linda.
She needed to talk with Linda, again.