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The Culmination of a Long Dream: A Soprano’s Aria Chapter 34

Editor’s note this chapter is of particular interest to me as it recounts Lulu’s perspective in her meeting of her son Milo’s girlfriend, my grandmother Carrie Henager Nov 12 — Yesterday Jessie and I went down to the auditorium to hear a very fine program in Memoriam to the American Army. When we got home […]

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Writing the Tough Stuff: Writing Challenge

After writing several of the last few blog posts I had to ask myself—what’s this with all this writing about loss? And I don’t have an answer, but I suspect the impetus to handle the tough topics has to do with the war in Ukraine. Seeing death and destruction causes me to wonder about all […]

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My Sister is Gone, But still I Smile

I don’t know how old I was when I realized I shared her name. I don’t know when I came to know of her existence –though it would have been difficult not to feel her presence. A ghost–never seen–but still ever present. She was the sister I never knew, though we shared the same name. 

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The Days Are Passing Swiftly by and I Am One Day Nearer Home: A Soprano’s Aria Chapter 32

“I am now about to retire it is nearly midnight beautiful and cool and moonlit.”

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My Woman Warrior: Pioneer Mother Catherine Adeline Stewart Murphy Mosier

The impetus for this blog post was my writing challenge to resurrect one of your women warriors. A woman in your tree whose story lies hidden in the names, dates and places. I have spent the last few weeks on Catherine. I offer this as an example of what is possible to resurrect a woman […]

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Write It Down

Aside from DNA, which I view as our personal encyclopedia of our ancestry, anything that is going to survive more than a generation or two is WRITTEN. Whether on a gravestone, an engraving, a letter, a newspaper clipping, photos or a book. What survives is written or inscribed. An unidentified photo of an ancestor is […]

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Women’s Origin Stories

I woke up thinking more about the question I asked earlier—Who Gets to Write History? More specifically who gets to write a woman’s history? Why do we yearn for women to be the heroines of their own stories, the guardians of their own destinies and not just an add-on in the lives of men? Who […]

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Life in this Eden takes on a Very Serious Aspect: A Soprano’s Aria Chapter 31

April 1 – Eilene came over to Berkeley and I cut her black silk dress. “ 2 – Wed Morning Choral practice. Called on Mrs Fryer at St Marks Eilene went home. “ 3 – Washed and cleaned house. Spent afternoon sewing on Eilenes dress. “ 4 Fri – Eilene came again to work on […]

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Heirlooms Gone, but not Forgotten

We keep some things so close, that even though we do not own them, they are never far away. The things that are indelible. The things that in a millisecond transport you back to the beginnings of our time, upon this earth. Their texture, fragrance, as close to you now as they were then, a […]

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Photos & Postcards : Now & Then

The idea for doing a blog post on this has been rolling around in my mind for a long while. It comes out of two intersecting interests. The first is visiting places, many with ancestral ties, and second is collecting old postcards of places I have visited. I really did not have the idea to […]

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