A little more than 12 years ago, Camille Mahoney’s daughter was working in the Mary Louis Academy when a colleague had the school pray for relatives who were expecting quadruplets.
Shortly after the four were born, Mahoney, who had recently lost her husband and had never met Tim and Colleen Tweedy, volunteered to help the new parents of four, and she hasn’t looked back.
“I walked into a room, and I saw two babies in one crib and two babies in another crib, and it seemed like they were holding hands,” Mahoney recalled about her first encounter with the kids when they were about two weeks old. “From that moment on, I just fell in love with them. And, I kept coming back, and I kept coming back, and now, I keep coming back.”
For the past 12 years, Mahoney hasn’t missed a birthday, holiday or a weekly visit to the four Tweedy children.
“She is a grandmother to the children now,” said the quadruplets’ mother Colleen Tweedy. “To them, they see her every single week. They have a wonderful relationship.”
Sitting in her apartment in Oakland Gardens during a recent Tuesday afternoon, Mahoney quickly spouts off Bridget, Sarah, James and Keelin – the names of the four Tweedy quadruplets – who are now 12 years old and live with their parents Tim and Colleen in Floral Park.
When the children were babies, Mahoney used to come over to their house on Wednesdays and watch the children so Colleen could run errands, do food-shopping, laundry and maybe even relax for a few minutes – a rarity with four young children. Mahoney remembered pushing all four children in one stroller, feeding them and changing some diapers.
As the kids grew up, and started school, “Mia” – the name that the Tweedy children used for Mahoney because they couldn’t say Camille – was there.
“I remember that she dropped us off at our first day of school,” said Sarah, who is the second oldest of the children and most talkative of the youngsters, recalling their first day of preschool.
James remembered playing baseball in the backyard with Mia and her coming to the quadruplets’ second birthday party.
Bridget, the oldest, said she was always excited when it was Mia’s day to come to the house, and all of their friends knew Mia when they would come over to play.
Although the children have grown up, and the weekly visits have changed from Wednesday to Friday, Mahoney still brings the children cookies, candy and brownies when she sees them on Friday afternoon and is there to greet them when they come from school.
The mild-mannered Mia, who is in her mid 80s and still very active with weekly bowling games and bridge matches, does not have any grandchildren and believes she is the lucky one.
“I became as much a grandmother as anybody that had them [grandchildren] through their natural children; I love the children so much,” Mahoney said. “They’re absolutely the greatest kids; they’re so smart.”
The love is mutual. The kids still look forward to Mia’s visits on Fridays, and Colleen and Tim are grateful for Mia’s help over the years and her continued presence in their children’s lives.
“She’s just really an amazing person,” Colleen said. “She has a great attitude; she’s very helpful. She is absolutely part of the family.”
