Maureen Waters began writing about the Bronx in the spirit of
dinnseachas, Irish place lore, as a means of recuperating from the
accidental death of her son, whose story frames her own. Finding her way
through the disorienting 1960s, after a girlhood tutored by nuns and
inspired by the Holy Ghost, she set out on a kind of spiritual journey
to recover what was valuable and life-sustaining in the Irish Catholic
experience left behind. Writing her memoir meant coming to terms with
the powerful matriarchal voices that inspired both affection and
immobilizing guilt. Ultimately, Crossing Highbridge is a tribute to
her father, for whom storytelling was an art of healing.