Doris Boulay - Grammy

Doris Boulay - Birth Certificate

Doris is my paternal grandmother.

Doris was born on 13 Jan 1909 to Horace Boulay and Albina Doucet in Belledune, New Brunswick, Canada.

Doris Boulay - Border Crossing 1926

Doris Boulay on Wedding Day

She left her home and moved to Saco, Maine in 1926 to work as a nanny.

She later moved to Oxford, Massachusetts, USA and met Harry Melvin Mullen. They married on 30 Sep 1936. They had a total of 5 children.

Doris Boulay Mullen passport photo

Harry and Doris had the following children:

Paul Lawrence (25 Sep 1937)

Gail Elizabeth (06 Oct 1939)

David Dalton (12 Jan 1941)

Robert Manning (01 Apr 1946)

Mary Lee "Daisy" (13 Aug 1952)

In 1946, the Mullen family moved to the Boston
neighborhood Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, USA

Doris died at the age of 102 on the 14th of November 2011 in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, USA and is buried at Knollwood Memorial Park in Canton, Massachusetts, USA.

Map of Knollwood Memorial Garden of the Last Supper

GRAMMY HUGS

Doris was known as "Grammy" later in life by family and friends. She always greeted everyone, whether she knew them or was just being introduced for the first time, with a big hug. She once told me that she was little and old and could get away with hugging everyone but the people she loved to hug the most were the ones she felt pulling away. Those people she would squeeze a little tighter and longer because she felt they needed her hugs the most.

NANNY

Doris moved from New Brunswick to Maine to become a nanny. Being the eldest child of 14 (some not even born yet before she left home at 17), she probably had a lot of experience taking care of children before she took on the endeavor.

It was at one of her nanny jobs that she met Harry Mullen. He was working the farm for the same family in Oxford, Massachusetts. Over the years, she would care for many children, 5 of which were her own, 12 grandchildren and, at the time of her passing, 10 great grandchildren with 1 more being born after.

TRAVEL

With a little help from her son the pilot, Grammy was able to do a bit of traveling in her time. Most was to visit family. She loved her trips to New Brunswick each year but was also able to see lots of America (including Hawaii) and even took a trip to Rome after she turned 90 to see the Vatican.