What’s this? An award for the oldest person in town? And a member of our family tree held that distinction the last year of her life? That relative is Amelia Waliski, the sister-in-law of Grandma Vayo’s sister Eva. Amelia lived her entire life in Monmouth, Maine. God bless her, Amelia was just nine months short of the centennial mark when she passed away on November 18, 2009. Amelia’s obituary praised her for being a family caretaker, especially with her sister…
The barn fire wasn’t mentioned in his obituary, but it was included in hers. They lived on the family farm. A dairy farm. In North Monmouth, Maine. A call to the fire department came at 9:30pm on Saturday, August 8, 1970. According to an article in The Lewisport Daily Sun, the barn had measured 40 by 60 feet and usually accommodated 32 milking cows. Thankfully, the cows had been turned out to pasture just 20 minutes before the fire was…
If you’re a certain age … or a connoisseur of big-band music, you’ll no doubt recognize the chant: Pennsylvania 6-5000! It was the phone number for the Hotel Pennsylvania in Midtown Manhattan, once the largest hotel in the world. And it was the hotel Mom and Dad chose for their honeymoon in 1952. By all means, give it a listen: They were married on November 4, 1952, while Dad was on a three-day leave from his service with the Army….
Some dark reading this month – and I don’t mean we had a light bulb needing to be changed. The third book, though, is all sweetness and light. Book 1: The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill You’ve probably seen – or at least heard of – the movie. I can promise you: The book is better. Because the author was there. The intricate planning and excruciating work that went into digging tunnels (yes, plural) are described in fascinating detail. Wouldn’t…
This is the first time our family tree has pointed me to an episode of Dateline. Oh, how I wish it weren’t so. At first, the name Harry Kirk Dansereau caught my eye. (You may remember Marie Antoinette Dansereau from this family story. Her half-brother Edward was Harry’s father.) After the name caught my eye, his obituary utterly charmed me. Harry’s grandchildren wrote his obituary together. They told of his birth in Baltimore, and education in New Hampshire, Maryland, England,…
It’s pumpkin-carving time! But not everyone is adept with a carving knife … or scythe. (There are photos online with people using power tools …) Mom learned the hard way that unfinished business is not acceptable when it comes to Jack O’Lanterns: Unfinished Business I’m going to write this with a brushthe outraged pumpkin on the pagewith one eye only and half a moutha loaf by his sidewith the knife engaged Finish me up he crookedly criesan ample nose and…
Giving my dear husband a hard time about the pronunciation of German surnames is one of my great joys in life. Gary, proud of his heritage, always responds quickly, firmly, assuredly. That is, until we came to his great-great-great grandfather, George Tuchscherer. Give it a try – how would you pronounce it? Gary says it’s do-SHARE. What? How in the world do you get do-SHARE out of Tuchscherer? Gary simply shrugged and repeated: do-SHARE. The great-great-great grandson was tickled when…
It’s been challenging to decide whether to include this poem Mom wrote in 1976 in a blog post. It was a turbulent time in the nation, despite the flag-waving Bicentennial Celebration. Current and ongoing news stories about violence against women and the reaction of a wink and a shrug by some provided the nudge I needed to share this: a dialogue on values during a forced entry get out of my houseshe screamed about herself as she was being raped…
What stories will be revealed as I go through this bag of receipts? The clear plastic bag was in among the family archives we brought home from Mom and Dad’s house in 2021. With the initials M&D written on a card in Dad’s handwriting, I expected it to be filled with his parents’ paper memorabilia. It was soon clear Dad labeled the bag to show it contained odds and ends from his long life with Mom. And it was meant…
In this 2004 poem, Mom remembers her youngest child’s return from the hospital as a newborn in 1964 and again from serving overseas in the Marines. Homecomings Soon after you were bornyour Father took your brothers sister berryingyour Grandmother steadied the housefor your homecoming and for the berry pickersthe two of us took off to bed after the admiration partyand the blueberries went into piesa succulent sleep in a hot ovenon a summer afternoon Years later on another summer afternoonwe…