Mother's Day: generations coming together

Leatrice Penny, who has been surrounded by women all her life, will celebrate her 80th Mother's Day Sunday.

The Lindenhurst resident was born in Newfoundland in 1908, the fourth of 14 children -- 10 of them girls. And now Penny, who turns 103 in July, is the matriarch of a family that boasts five generations of women, all of whom, except for one granddaughter, live in Suffolk County.

"My mother came from a very rugged life," explains Penny's only daughter, Hilda Baily, 80, who lives next door to her mother. "They had no running water and no electricity. "

Family calls her Nanny

Penny, a great-great-grandmother who is affectionately referred to as Nanny, also was given a lot of responsibility at a young age, according to her daughter. She was taken out of school in the second grade to help care for her younger siblings and to work in the warehouse of her family's lobster business. She would make bread for the family and was often sent to sit with sick family members.

When she was 18, Penny moved to Park Slope, Brooklyn.

"I left for a better life," she said. "I wasn't getting paid for what I was doing and I thought I'd make a move."

She worked in a laundry and for a doctor until she wed Harold Penny on March 8, 1929. They stayed married for 65 years, until his death. Together they raised Baily and her two brothers, Bud, of Florida, and Bill, who is deceased.

Baily remembers her mother helping her out with her four girls when she became a mother. Michele Walton, 35, of Nesconset, who is Baily's granddaughter, fought back tears as she talked about her mom, Joyce Orenzo, 57, of Holbrook.

"We're together all the time, and she is my best friend," said Walton, who has three brothers and three children -- Megan, 8, Molly, 5, and Jack, 2. "I don't have enough words to tell you how much I love my mother."

Penny, who was to travel with family to Connecticut for another great-granddaughter's wedding yesterday, takes her matriarch role in stride. "I feel good; I have no complaints," she said.

Another family's journey

Last Mother's Day, Tracey Babb was living in North Carolina and sent her mom gifts to mark the day. But this year the guidance counselor, 31, and her daughter, Laila Flagg, 7, will spend the day at the home they now share with Jacqueline Babb, who lives in Central Islip.

"One of my reasons for moving home was that I only got to see my mom twice a year," said Tracey Babb.

Jacqueline Babb, 63, an associate professor at Farmingdale State College, said she is proud of her daughter, who plans to pursue her PhD in educational psychology in January, but she acknowledges there were times when they didn't see eye to eye. When her daughter was a rebellious teen, Babb left her a page from Iyanla Vanzant's book "Faith in the Valley." An excerpt read: "Before your mother was your mother, she had dreams, she had goals and, yes, she had a life. Then she had you."

But the teen-turned-adult remembers things differently. "I don't think I was difficult," said Tracey, the third of Babb's four children and the only girl. "I think I just wanted to get out and explore the world."

While her daughter had her own ideas about exploring the world, Babb saw to it that her children actually did, taking them on cross-country trips, as well as visits to foreign lands.

"Even though I complained, . . . the desire to see the world came from my mom," Tracey Babb said. And now her daughter, Laila, who has traveled with her grandmother to Mexico, Belize and Guatemala, is hoping to travel to Paris soon.

Wherever they go, Sunday all three will be home, together, and won't have to ship gifts.

Babb said one of her favorite Mother's Day presents is one she still uses -- a cellphone from her oldest son, Chris. "I'm not big on gifts," she said, "but I wanted that fuchsia phone."