Goodreads asked Brian J. Dolan:

What mystery in your own life could be a plot for a book?

Brian J. Dolan The mystery in my family that I’d love to write is about my great aunt Suzy, who turned out not to be my great aunt at all.

Suzy, born, Suzanne Elizabeth Gilgan, was born to immigrant parents on a farm in Woburn, Massachusetts, but became a successful milliner with fancy hat shops on Newbury Street and Boylston Street in Boston. She would travel to and from Europe yearly to bring back the latest fashions, and would always go with a married Jewish because it was unseemly for a woman to travel alone.

I was able to buy one of her hats on eBay in the early 2000s. It’s a small purple number designed to be worn forward on the head, with a long purple feather that rakes back and curves along the head. You can imagine an immaculately dressed woman waiting to board a steam train or an ocean liner wearing it, with gloves and a matching clutch.

Not long after I was born, my father learned that his aunt Suzy was really his maternal grandmother. She had given my grandmother to her brother raise, saving her the shame of being raised by a single mother, and confessed it only on her deathbed.

Who was my great grandfather? How did Suzy rise from poverty to being a successful female business owner during the depression? There’s a great story in there somewhere…

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