Back to Buffalo, Part 2

I went to Buffalo in search of stories from the early lives of Beverly and Sean, and I returned from my trip with plenty of them. I was especially keen on getting details about the young Sean Rooney, because I had only gotten a few vignettes from Beverly. On one sunny day, Sean's sister, Cynthia Blest, guided me around the parts of Buffalo that had been touched by Sean.

This is the house on Dorchester Road the Rooney family lived in when Sean was growing up. Beverly had told me the story about the time Sean had dismantled a 1951 MG TD in the driveway when he was a teenager, and rebuilt it piece-by-piece. And Cynthia recounted with a smile an episode involving Sean, some gin-and-tonics, and a botched repair job on the front steps. It was in the kitchen of this house, helping his mother, Rosemary, that Sean absorbed the lessons of how food and love could combine in magical ways. Many times it is the lessons we learn when we are young that carry us through in the years to come.