October 11th, 2023 | Education, Europe, General, Memory, Politics, Society at Large
I expected the village of Žiežmariai to be a quick stop. My target was the church, St James the Apostle, where so many Tomkuses had been baptized, married and seen off to the hereafter. The wooden prayer house those ancestors would have known was replaced in 1924 by...
October 10th, 2023 | Europe, Family, Genealogy, General, Travel
The plan was to spend a couple days in the place where Dan’s paternal grandfather, Kazimir Tamkus, came from. Kazimir and his brother Petrus died in the Diamond Mining disaster in Scranton, Pennsylvania in December 1914. Family facts and fancies died with them when...
October 9th, 2023 | Europe, General, transportation, Travel
When I traveled with Dan, my chief focus was his comfort. Car rentals, hotel choices, itineraries: all decisions reflected our very different tourism styles. Inefficiencies, inconveniences and the unexpected don’t rattle me but they could easily discommode him. Rent...
October 7th, 2023 | Architecture and Design, Europe, Family, General, Loss, Matters of the Spirit, Travel
The cemetery in Balbieriškis is a beautiful place, whatever the metric you choose. It is a place of peace and transcendent love that is evident in the tending of the space, the care for the ancestors. The Old Cemetery is the most beautiful of all, with its signs of...
October 7th, 2023 | Architecture and Design, Europe, General, Memory, Popular Culture, Travel
Jean-Bernard grimaces as he tells me it’s gonna be hot. Thirty-two degrees. He wrinkles his nose. I already know. Weather.com says 78 ° F by early afternoon. “Je déteste la chaleur,” I respond. “Moi aussi,” he agrees. He doesn’t like the heat, either. It’s Not 1999...
October 4th, 2023 | Europe, Family, General, Matters of the Spirit, Memory, Pets, Time Passes, Travel
Douglas Keister published Stories in Paris: A Field Guide to Paris Cemeteries and Their Residents in 2013 and I don’t remember when I bought it. I must have encountered it in the travel pages of The New York Times. but I don’t recall. Cemeteries in Distant...
September 30th, 2023 | Europe, Family, General, Loss, Travel
The Garden Saint Martin seems to be the hotel of choice for many women traveling solo. It also has truly charming gentlemen at the front desk. Murat, in particular, is something of a flirt. I realized while unpacking that I had forgotten—despite my best efforts—an...
September 29th, 2023 | Europe, General, Travel
Café Plat du Jour Cheeseburger Terrible name but the café is on the corner of Place de la République and this morning, in addition to strong coffee, I seek the liveliness of traffic. And the oh-so-French accent of emergency vehicles. My café au lait is delicious, too....
August 17th, 2023 | business and finance, General, social media, Women
The attorney checked in to see if I had completed some assignments. I hadn’t and got to work. Did the paperwork to transfer the title of Garnet, the RAV4, into my name. Arranged for appraisal of the Barthiana: check. Communicated with Vanguard on various tasks: check....
July 29th, 2023 | Cooking, Kitchen and Table, Family, Friends, General, Loss
I had been putting off serious thought about the menu for Dan’s memorial this coming Saturday, now exactly one week off. Putting together a video and assembling a play list had been a diversion. I worried, moreover, that if I didn’t get it started, I might have...