It is a right and good and joyous thing to praise God; it is also a right and good and joyous thing to honor one's ancestors and family. And that's what I intend to do here. First picture of all pictures, my great grandfather Carlisa, father of my paternal grandmother, who is responsible for my christened name of "Senoria," originally written with a tilde over the N and no I, and reputedly thought to mean "princess, or dainty little lady," but which I have later come to appreciate is actually a title given to a man in the diplomatic world, as in "O distinguished one . . . "
I believe the photograph was taken in the 1890's in Elmira, NY. For some reason, though there tend to be more pictures of my mother's side of the family, for instance, this photo that her family used as a Christmas greeting card in the 1940's:
I also particularly like this early photograph of my mother and Uncle Charles taken on the porch of the house in LaGrange:
But the inevitable comes, and little girls grow into young women who are courted by young men: my father and mother met in law school and worked crossword puzzles together at the back of the class. Mom missed Dad when he went away to Japan during the Korean War, and Dad had a silk-screen artist do this silk-screen from a photo of my mother (this is a photo of the silk-screen, which is now framed and hanging in the foyer of my parents' grand house on 55th Street in Kansas City, MO:
Here is a picture of me taken at age 5, in 1970, at the sixth birthday party of one of my kindergarten classmates. For some reason, Mom tells me this is to this day her favorite picture of me!
By the time that picture was taken, I had already had my first rabbit, Cottontail, but we do not have any photographs of him. Instead, I offer you a photograph of Poindexter, the twin of the pair of Tristan and Poindexter, which I acquired for my eleventh birthday, after having read Watership Down and constructing a cage with the help of my father. Tristan became my rabbit, and Poindexter was Ginger's rabbit. Tristan died young of cirrhosis of the liver (I swear I never saw him drink; it was genetic), and Poindexter eventually gave way to the two black and white babies, Bambi and Weatherby.
Bambi and Weatherby were supposed to have been two male rabbits, but boy did we get a suprise one morning when Virginia thought the rabbits had had a fight: there was a litter that Bambi had given birth too:
This family photograph, complete with cat Kitty, dog Scottie and my maternal grandparents was taken about the same time as we would have gotten Poindexter, around 1975:
Unfortunately, Laura is absent from the picture, as she is taking the picture, just as she is in this next "family" photograph, taken about 1976:
But at least I have a picture of Laura in High School doing one of the things she loved best, vaccinating children in Central AMerica through the Amigos program, in which she participates as a volunteer to this day:
In Virginia's Senior year of high school (1978-79), we were joined by the AFS student, Pilar Polanco from Bogota, Colombia. Ginger and PIlar were close, and PIlar even came back up to the United States for Ginger's wedding:
The summer of what would have been my sophomore year, we moved into the house on 55th Street; in actuality it was my junior year, because I skipped a year of high school.
I was an AFS student for a summer in Turkey, 1980, during which Turkey had a military coup. I came home very plump from the extensive and pushy hospitality of my host family. This picture is taken in the backyard of my parents' house on 55th Street, my senior year:
My years as an undergraduate at University of Kansas passed in a blur of colored folk dancing outfits and opanci (the little shoes worn for folk dancing in the Balkans). Another thing that passed in a blur was the lives of my grandparents. I lost all three living grandparents during those years. I post here a photo of my Grandmother Brodie, the one to survive the latest,
Grandma kept quite a grove of citrus trees on the property she had with Grandpa in Dunedin, Florida. After Grandpa died, she no longer felt that she could live on her own, and I think selling the property broke her heart. She died shortly thereafter.
Here is a picture of me graduating from KU, summa cum laude, Honors in Linguistics, with my father, in front of the house on Tennesee Street that I rented at the time:
The next two years, I spent studing Turkish and Economics in England. I was very blessed that from time to time my parents could afford to come visit me and their friends the Fords in York:
Then it was off to Law School for three years, where I discovered the joys of distance running as well as the thrill of not serving on the editorial Bd of Law Review my final year there. Long-distance running led eventually to having Matt Centrowitz as a coach and John Everline as a better-half for seven years. Perhaps the culminating point was the 2000 WOmen's Marathon Olympic Trials, when I had broken my foot several months ahead of time, but my parents chose to throw me a party with the rest of the family anyway:
And then there is this picture of the Everlines, John and I, and my folks:
And after running and John, was seminary and, after graduation from seminary, Scott:
Although I am childless, I do have two nieces and one nephew through my sister, Ginger. Here are their recent school photos. Jack really enjoys ice hockey and was on the travel team this year with many of his friends:
Caroline, the middle child, excels at creative writing and also at diving, at which she trains several times a week:
And Kathryn has just completed her first year of boarding school. She is an accomplished flautist.
I am also blessed to have cousins who keep in touch with me, among them Silvia Dipman, my first cousin on my mother's side, and Susan Haire, also a first cousin on my mother's side. Here are pictures of their delightful young families:
Family
I believe the photograph was taken in the 1890's in Elmira, NY. For some reason, though there tend to be more pictures of my mother's side of the family, for instance, this photo that her family used as a Christmas greeting card in the 1940's:
I also particularly like this early photograph of my mother and Uncle Charles taken on the porch of the house in LaGrange:
But the inevitable comes, and little girls grow into young women who are courted by young men: my father and mother met in law school and worked crossword puzzles together at the back of the class. Mom missed Dad when he went away to Japan during the Korean War, and Dad had a silk-screen artist do this silk-screen from a photo of my mother (this is a photo of the silk-screen, which is now framed and hanging in the foyer of my parents' grand house on 55th Street in Kansas City, MO:
Here is a picture of me taken at age 5, in 1970, at the sixth birthday party of one of my kindergarten classmates. For some reason, Mom tells me this is to this day her favorite picture of me!
By the time that picture was taken, I had already had my first rabbit, Cottontail, but we do not have any photographs of him. Instead, I offer you a photograph of Poindexter, the twin of the pair of Tristan and Poindexter, which I acquired for my eleventh birthday, after having read Watership Down and constructing a cage with the help of my father. Tristan became my rabbit, and Poindexter was Ginger's rabbit. Tristan died young of cirrhosis of the liver (I swear I never saw him drink; it was genetic), and Poindexter eventually gave way to the two black and white babies, Bambi and Weatherby.
Bambi and Weatherby were supposed to have been two male rabbits, but boy did we get a suprise one morning when Virginia thought the rabbits had had a fight: there was a litter that Bambi had given birth too:
This family photograph, complete with cat Kitty, dog Scottie and my maternal grandparents was taken about the same time as we would have gotten Poindexter, around 1975:
Unfortunately, Laura is absent from the picture, as she is taking the picture, just as she is in this next "family" photograph, taken about 1976:
But at least I have a picture of Laura in High School doing one of the things she loved best, vaccinating children in Central AMerica through the Amigos program, in which she participates as a volunteer to this day:
In Virginia's Senior year of high school (1978-79), we were joined by the AFS student, Pilar Polanco from Bogota, Colombia. Ginger and PIlar were close, and PIlar even came back up to the United States for Ginger's wedding:
The summer of what would have been my sophomore year, we moved into the house on 55th Street; in actuality it was my junior year, because I skipped a year of high school.
I was an AFS student for a summer in Turkey, 1980, during which Turkey had a military coup. I came home very plump from the extensive and pushy hospitality of my host family. This picture is taken in the backyard of my parents' house on 55th Street, my senior year:
My years as an undergraduate at University of Kansas passed in a blur of colored folk dancing outfits and opanci (the little shoes worn for folk dancing in the Balkans). Another thing that passed in a blur was the lives of my grandparents. I lost all three living grandparents during those years. I post here a photo of my Grandmother Brodie, the one to survive the latest,
Grandma kept quite a grove of citrus trees on the property she had with Grandpa in Dunedin, Florida. After Grandpa died, she no longer felt that she could live on her own, and I think selling the property broke her heart. She died shortly thereafter.
Here is a picture of me graduating from KU, summa cum laude, Honors in Linguistics, with my father, in front of the house on Tennesee Street that I rented at the time:
The next two years, I spent studing Turkish and Economics in England. I was very blessed that from time to time my parents could afford to come visit me and their friends the Fords in York:
Then it was off to Law School for three years, where I discovered the joys of distance running as well as the thrill of not serving on the editorial Bd of Law Review my final year there. Long-distance running led eventually to having Matt Centrowitz as a coach and John Everline as a better-half for seven years. Perhaps the culminating point was the 2000 WOmen's Marathon Olympic Trials, when I had broken my foot several months ahead of time, but my parents chose to throw me a party with the rest of the family anyway:
And then there is this picture of the Everlines, John and I, and my folks:
And after running and John, was seminary and, after graduation from seminary, Scott:
Although I am childless, I do have two nieces and one nephew through my sister, Ginger. Here are their recent school photos. Jack really enjoys ice hockey and was on the travel team this year with many of his friends:
Caroline, the middle child, excels at creative writing and also at diving, at which she trains several times a week:
And Kathryn has just completed her first year of boarding school. She is an accomplished flautist.
I am also blessed to have cousins who keep in touch with me, among them Silvia Dipman, my first cousin on my mother's side, and Susan Haire, also a first cousin on my mother's side. Here are pictures of their delightful young families:
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