From the archives: Family celebrates five generations of women

This story was originally published in Newsday on May 6, 2005

For more than 40 years, in the modest split-level house on Picture Lane in Hicksville, the X chromosome has ruled.

In Madge McMahon's tiny living room, tucked among a sea of photographs that document decades of Holy Communions, graduations and weddings, the McMahon women have reigned over all the laughter and drama in their lives.

On Sunday for the first time, five generations of women - all the oldest siblings in the family - will celebrate Mother's Day in the same tradition.

"There's always something going on in her house," said McMahon's granddaughter, Marjorie DiMaria, 44, of Melville. "There's always women in here with some kind of chaos going on, and they're always sitting here in the living room."

This Mother's Day, the clan will change location - to granddaughter Toni Gigliano's Massapequa home - but the women will still gather, from 96-year-old Madge to her daughter Marge, 70, granddaughter Toni, 49, and great-granddaughter Keri Vandenberg of Massapequa, 27, to great-great-granddaughter Olivia Rose Vandenberg, who is 6 weeks old.

Of Irish heritage, Madge McMahon was raised in Hamilton, Scotland, and immigrated to the United States in 1928, settling down in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where she became a nurse. It wasn't long before she met her future husband, Peter, at a party. "He asked me to dance, so I did," McMahon said.

In 1934 the couple married and her new husband, who had emigrated from Donegal, Ireland, tried to convince his wife they should leave the United States and go back to their roots. She refused, and the couple raised four girls and a boy and moved to Long Island in 1951.

Often working night shifts, McMahon left her oldest daughter in charge. In the McMahon family, by the time a girl reaches her teen years, she is expected to either have a paying job or help around the house. "Independence was a must, and I raised my daughters that way too," said Marge, who shares the Hicksville house with her mom.

All of the women have been working moms, from Marge, a former data processor for Grumman, to Vandenberg, an adjuster for Geico in Woodbury. "We were all raised to be strong women," Marge said.

In her house, underneath an old Irish blessing perched on a shelf that wishes, "May you see your children's children," Madge still holds court. "She's easygoing, but she's tough," Gigliano said. "Whatever she says goes."

And she doesn't pull any punches. "If you want to know the truth, ask Nanny, she'll tell you!" DiMaria said. Gigliano added, "She tells you when you need a haircut, when you should put some lipstick on."

Madge still gets her hair and nails done regularly. She enjoys a good sherry every now and then, and like all the women in the family, still loves to get out on the dance floor. Her favorite song is the '80s pop hit "Gloria" by the late Laura Branigan. "We put her in a wheelchair and swing her around and everybody dances around her," Marge said.

Mother's Day, like other family holidays, means eating lots of homecooked food and sharing stories. With a smile that rolls across her face like the Irish hills of her heritage, Madge may recall her mischievous childhood or fill the room with a rendition of an old family favorite, "Four Green Fields." Maybe she'll pass on advice, as when she tells the women in her family that being a good mother comes down to two things: love and trust.

"We love to get together," Gigliano said. "But she's the star of it. We all keep close because of her.