Jenkins, Elsie Hauck Holahan

After the death of Thomas and John Paul Merton's mother in 1921, Elsie Hauck Holahan came into the house of Merton's maternal grandparents, the Jenkins, to help take care of the two boys. She stayed in the household to take care of Merton's grandmother, "Mattie" Baldwin Jenkins. Elsie Hauck was the widow of Captain Patrick Holahan, who had fought in the Easter Rebellion in Ireland in 1916. After both of Thomas Merton's grandparents had died, his uncle, Harold Brewster Jenkins, inherited his parents house and married Elsie Hauck in 1938. When Merton moved back to Long Island in the 1930's, he grew close to Elsie's mother, Freida "Nanny" Hauck. Nancy Hauck Boettcher informed Merton in 1964 of Nanny's poor health and sent him a telegram in 1965 informing him of her death. Merton writes with his condolescences to Elsie. (Source: «The Road to Joy», p. 57 and 71.)