This is so full of stories within the story, Rita. It is a remarkable one that has been and is your life and the life of your immediate and extended family. The layers of complexity certainly live in the layers of such history. That you know all of these details is remarkable. Such a different "space" than yours at Three Birches.
Thanks so much, Dawn! I must have replied to this in my head. I wrote an essay about this years ago, hence the clarity about the details. :-) Yes, I love the layers.
Thanks, Emma! I went on a tour of an exhibit that included Victorian glass last year. The guide pointed out a glass or small picture that they used to keep sticks of celery in water prior to a meal. I wonder if that was part of the origin of Grandma's blessing.
Thanks, Dawn! Yes, so different, but also my grandparents didn't have the means to go someplace like I do. Who knows where they would have chosen. When I write about visiting where they were from in Italy, their towns were linked by a lovely deep ravine with a ribbon of green water surrounded by cliffs.
Reading your newsletter today reminded me of how much I wished that one of my grand aunts was still alive as she knew so much family history but I was too young to appreciate these things and she developed dementia later and passed away afterwards. We used to visit her home every Eid in an old part of Dubai in an old home and it was exactly like "time traveling" as you have described.
This is so full of stories within the story, Rita. It is a remarkable one that has been and is your life and the life of your immediate and extended family. The layers of complexity certainly live in the layers of such history. That you know all of these details is remarkable. Such a different "space" than yours at Three Birches.
Thanks so much, Dawn! I must have replied to this in my head. I wrote an essay about this years ago, hence the clarity about the details. :-) Yes, I love the layers.
Really enjoyed this generational portrait of a New York family. Some great details - like your grandmother’s water-flicking stick of celery!
Thanks, Emma! I went on a tour of an exhibit that included Victorian glass last year. The guide pointed out a glass or small picture that they used to keep sticks of celery in water prior to a meal. I wonder if that was part of the origin of Grandma's blessing.
Thanks, Dawn! Yes, so different, but also my grandparents didn't have the means to go someplace like I do. Who knows where they would have chosen. When I write about visiting where they were from in Italy, their towns were linked by a lovely deep ravine with a ribbon of green water surrounded by cliffs.
Reading your newsletter today reminded me of how much I wished that one of my grand aunts was still alive as she knew so much family history but I was too young to appreciate these things and she developed dementia later and passed away afterwards. We used to visit her home every Eid in an old part of Dubai in an old home and it was exactly like "time traveling" as you have described.