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Category: Vayo

1917 Bangor High School
‘The Strange Disappearance of John Marlowe’

‘The Strange Disappearance of John Marlowe’

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Another discovery! First it was the Bangor High School yearbook from 1917, the year leading up to Grandpa Vayo’s graduation. Here’s his senior photo along with a memorable blurb: We’ve already seen Grandpa’s high school artwork in an earlier version of The Oracle (apparently, there were monthly editions to highlight the students’ talents). In that edition, Dad’s father displayed his comic chops. In this edition, though, Grandpa appears to be tip-toeing into the water a half century before a future…

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1860 Theodocia Grout
Dear Theodocia

Dear Theodocia

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Ever since I saw this woman’s name and added her to our family tree, that song from Hamilton has haunted my brain. Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton sing this duet as a lullabye to their newborns, Theodosia and Philip: But who was our Theodocia? She was born in Brookfield, Massachusetts, just eight years after the end of the Revolutionary War. She was one of ten children born to Jacob and Lois. Her siblings carried such names as Ebenezer, Sewell, and…

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1958 Kelly family ancestral home
A Tuesday wedding in 1852

A Tuesday wedding in 1852

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Now that I’m buckling down and finally watching the tutorial videos Ancestry.com provides, I’ve learned the fancy genealogical terms “brick wall” and “breakthrough.” And so, with a bit of a blush and definite tongue-in-cheek, I must proclaim: We’ve scaled the brick wall and experienced a breakthrough! Let’s go back a week, when the luck of the Irish arrived via an email. It was Adrian (who, it turns out, is my third cousin), who had wandered across this blog post from…

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1979 Joan Vayo at writing desk Joan Vayo
‘The Other Woman’

‘The Other Woman’

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After a loved one dies, it’s a great relief to dream about them. I seem to dream about Mom and Dad just a few times a year. It always feels current, yet back in time. That way about dreams that’s only confusing after you awaken. In the dream, I proclaim joyfully that Mom is able to walk steadily again, as in her pre-Parkinson’s days. I hug her repeatedly. We prepare a meal together; it’s always a family gathering. I wake…

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1908 Joseph & Ada Hammond family
1890: A terrible accident

1890: A terrible accident

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This is a tough one. Yes, it happened a long time ago, but it still warrants a trigger warning. This story involves Dad’s side of the family. His grandfather was George Vayo, whose mother was Olive Lambert Vayo. Olive was born in Orono, Maine, in March of 1854. Five years later, her sister Ada was born. This is Ada’s story. Adelaide Lambert was only six years old when her mother passed away at the age of 36. By the time…

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angel's trumpet photo by P.L. Tandon
The angel’s trumpet

The angel’s trumpet

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Have you ever seen a flowering Angel’s Trumpet plant? Simply gorgeous: When she was a teen, Mom wrote about the plant, creating a story about how it came to be. Her high-school newspaper printed this work of prose in 1946. Here’s the full piece: The Herald of Heaven In a gladed forest shaded by dense foliage grows a lowly plant, lowly, that is, in stature. Botanists have christened it “Angel’s trumpet” due to its peculiar shape. No one seemed to…

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red fox
The woman in red

The woman in red

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With Mom’s love of nature expressed in her poetry, I have to wonder … Who is this woman in red? A cardinal? Red squirrel? Red-winged blackbird? Or maybe, just maybe, a red fox. Here’s Mom‘s poem: The Curve / The Cave I will always wonderwhere the woman in red wentshe was my musicI knew her loved herwrote her on the pageand in my hearta lover came out of the Eastwith voice and eyes and hands so tendershe became his flowerdon’t…

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Mom & Dad 2002
The two-year poem

The two-year poem

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One of these days, I need to pull out Mom’s “rejection folder” for a blog post. Yes, she kept the rejection letters she received from magazine editors over the years. Rejection. Who needs that?! But Mom never gave up. She kept mailing out those hand-typed poems, knowing her work was good. Once in a while, there’d be hand-written feedback in the margins of those letters, written by kind editors who no doubt understood the pain of rejection. Back in the…

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1929 Cassidy Wedding
‘Maybe’

‘Maybe’

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With Mother’s Day just around the corner, here’s a poem Mom wrote in memory of her mother in 2004. The occasion was the 101st anniversary of Grandma‘s birth. It had been more than two decades since Grandma’s passing, but her oldest child was still thinking of her parents together. Dancing together. Maybe In a photograph the windowlures us to a world away we’ll never seeso like a road ascending bendingon the driver’s side and then is goneas we are gonewhat…

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Finding Felix

Finding Felix

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Felix was born in Canada. He grew up in Maine. Felix served in the Army. He’s buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Who was Felix? He was the middle of five Vayo brothers, born just over two years after great-grandpa George Vayo. Of the five brothers, four were born in Maine. Felix, however, was born in Canada. Try as I might, I can’t figure out why. His mother, Olive, was born in Maine. His father, Joseph, was born in Quebec but…

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