Two Floors Above Grief: A Memoir of Two Families in the Unique Place We Called Home by Kevin M. O’Connor | 1 Signed Copy Available
A book blog tour from iRead Book Tours.
Thank you to the author, publisher, & Lauren at iRead for providing me with the information for this tour. 
Book Details
Two Floors Above Grief: A Memoir of Two Families in the Unique Place We Called Home by Kevin O'Connor
Published by Independent on November 22, 2022
Genres: Non-fiction, Memoir
Format: eBook, Paperback
Pages: 344
As a child in the 1950s, Kevin O’Connor knew his house was different than his friends.
A stately, three-story, nineteenth-century Victorian. His bed tucked next to a stage in a former ballroom. His uncle and aunt lived with their three daughters on the floor below. A large electric organ in a bay window of the first-floor mortuary business. Stacked caskets and an embalming room in the basement.
Nobody had a house like his.
Set from the 1920s to ‘80s, Two Floors Above Grief is full of fascinating details and anecdotes about life as a funeral home child, brought to vivid life through a compelling collection of letters written by O’Connor and various family members who lived and worked together at the O’Connor Funeral Home in Elgin, Illinois. Blending the twenty-four-hour business of death and its constantly ringing phone with the joy experienced by his families through music, pets, backyard basketball games, co-parenting, faith, and celebrations, O’Connor offers a reflective love letter to the affirmation of family love and embracing life.
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Purchase Links for Two Floors Above Grief
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About Kevin O'Connor
Kevin O’Connor enjoys chronicling the stories of families and friends through tracing genealogical histories and writing.
His prior writing includes a dissertation, personal letters, articles, anthologies, and presentations delivered at conferences, seminars, and webinars.
He brings people together personally and professionally. Collaborating with friends and relatives, he plans family and class reunions.
He sings and performs in theaters and is active with SMART Ride, a bicycling group that rides annually from Miami to Key West, raising funds for HIV awareness, treatment, and education.
Kevin was an elementary teacher, principal, professor, and curriculum coordinator in California, Illinois, and Florida from 1973 to 2020. He authored content and provided training in areas including support for substitute teachers, LGBTQ advocacy, and Sexual Health/Family Life.
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Guest Post From the Author, Kevin O’Connor
While researching my memoir, I happened to come across…
… a poster that my Uncle Lawrence had created in one of his first promotional campaigns for his new funeral home business. The poster is a color representation of a painting by artist Carl W. Rawson in 1931. The scene is of four horses. A military commander is atop one of the horses. Behind the horses are four football players known as “The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse” of Notre Dame, executing a play on an imaginary field. Behind them in the clouds is the face of Coach Knute Rockne. The title of the painting is The Spirit of Leadership. In the area below the framed representation of the painting, bold blue letters spell out:
O’CONNOR FUNERAL HOME
1400
118 VILLA ST. << >> ELGIN, IL
1400 represents its phone number at the time.
Why did Lawrence use this image of Rockne for his marketing in the first years of the business? He explained his motivation for the poster to me during a driving trip to South Bend in September 1983 to celebrate my cousin Michelle Dermody’s twenty-fifth anniversary as a nun. Lawrence was reminiscing about his youth.
Rockne was the coach from 1918 to 1931 when Lawrence was in his teens and twenties and enamored with Notre Dame football. While Rockne was building the program, there was a cloud of discrimination fostered by the Klu Klux Klan. Its members were instrumental in influencing Indiana state policies and politics. They discriminated against Blacks, Jews, Catholics, and the Irish. In 1924, the Klan held a rally in South Bend attended by their supporters. Students came from the school to challenge them. Fights broke out. Rockne spoke at the rally to help quell the combat between the students and the Klan. The fighting abated. Due, in part to this event, the team became known as the “Fighting Irish.”
The team won its first national title in 1925. Rockne led the team to more than one hundred wins and three national championships. Catholic-Irish families strongly supported the team and the university. The following he fostered in northern Indiana extended to national audiences. The team’s success contributed to the acceptance of Irish culture after years of discrimination.
Rockne converted to Catholicism. He used his platform and stature to give his political support to Al Smith, governor of New York and the most prominent Irish American leader of his generation. Rockne’s support helped Smith to become the Democratic nominee for president in 1928. Herbert Hoover defeated him, the last Republican to win a national election until 1952.
Rockne died at forty-three on an airline flight headed to Los Angeles. He was going to participate in the production of a movie, The Spirit of Notre Dame. I surmise Lawrence was tying the roots and struggles felt by Irish Americans against discrimination with the allegiance to Notre Dame shared by many in the Chicago area. The portrayal in the painting brought together the broadly known story of Rockne and his death, the growing support for Irish Americans, and the appeal Lawrence wanted to make to Catholics in Elgin to consider his young business.
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Giveaway!
Win a signed copy of Two Floors Above Grief: A Memoir of Two Families in the Unique Place We Called Home by Kevin M. O’Connor (one winner) (USA only) (ends Mar 3)
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Official Tour Page for Two Floors Above Grief
Full Tour Schedule:
Feb 6 – Cover Lover Book Review
Feb 6 – Because I said so — and other adventures in Parenting
Feb 7 – Jazzy Book Reviews
Feb 8 – Stephanie Jane
Feb 9 – I’m Into Books
Feb 10 – Novels Alive
Feb 13 – Gina Rae Mitchell
Feb 14 – Book Corner News and Reviews –
Feb 15 – Diana’s Book Journal
Feb 16 – Locks, Hooks and Books
Feb 17 – Splashes of Joy
Feb 17 – fundinmental
Feb 21 – Celticlady’s Reviews
Feb 22 – Books for Books
Feb 22 – Rockin’ Book Reviews –
Feb 23 – Books and Games
Feb 24 – Liese’s Blog
Two Floors Above Grief by Kevin M. O’Connor Book Tour Giveaway
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Thanks for sharing!
This sounds like a most unusual memoir. I would like to read it.
It is a rather unique memoir.