The Mahony Book of Family Values
When my siblings and I were in college we knew that we could write one letter to our Mahony grandparents and two good things would happen: we would make these two special people happy and also end up with a reply in the amount of $10 (adjusted for inflation). A classic win-win scenario, which is nice. My dad took the process to a whole new level with the creation of the Mahony Book of Family Values
The Book of Family Values was created by my father and mother,Ray and Helen, back in the 1980s. This “Book” existed not on paper but totally in the mind of my father. At the center of this effort was the simple desire on the part of my folks to stay in touch with their grand and great grandchildren. But it was even more: they wanted to encourage the kids to perform well in school, in sports, behave themselves, and be good people. The hook was that the Book of Values referenced a “book” that didn’t exist: allowing my father to create categories, monetary rewards, and quotations from the book every time he received a request. When Ryan broke his wrist he received an award of $1.87 under the category of “Dumb Things to Do”. Colin received an award for throwing a TD pass in overtime to win a game. The award was broken down as follows: Throwing pass to win the game: $18.50, Doing it in overtime: $.65, doing it on his birthday: $1.25. Often the “committee” would provide various dollar awards for As, Bs, and Cs: referencing various pages in the “book”. The beauty was that the values for the letter grades change continually as my folks couldn’t remember what value they assigned in earlier awards: this confused the kids yet they had no problem cashing the checks!
Every note ended the same way: with an expression of love and affection for the recipient (and always mentioned the other siblings as well). This combination of humor, recognition for doing the right thing, and expressions of love were the themes of the Book of Family Values.
Anyway, you get the picture. Enjoy my parents doing what they loved to do.
In this letter Ryan is given recognition for being the only member of the extended family to be inducted into the National Honor Society. This caused a bit of a stir as Megan had been inducted years earlier at Norwell High School. This led to one of the only retractions the “committee” ever offered however the committee allowed Ryan to retain his reward.
Retraction
The Book of Values was also extended to the next generation as is evident in the award to Quinn Michael Mahony. Helen and Rays oldest great grandchild.
