Two weeks of Joys and Sorrows: Reunions, weddings, memorial and funeral services, Olympics, and more

Slapstick, loud and funny play at the Orem Hale Theatre

Sad news of the passing of kind, smart, level-headed 56 year old Susan Wojcicki, leader at Google and CEO of You-Tube. I have long-admired the Wojicki family, friends of my kids in Palo Alto.

What an amazing Olympic Games, with spectacular performances by so many outstanding athletes...competitive but bringing together this often too disconnected world. I especially loved the track and basketball events, but love it all!

Sara Gilman and I flew from hot (but still beautiful) Utah to the pleasant California Bay Area

to visit with friends (Sara, Nanci Thomander, Wendy Parry)...

and to attend the wonderful memorial service for Monajo Ellsworth, who had such an impact on many of our lives. Below among others are her wonderful children: Marie and Ann (3rd and 4th from left), Michelle and John (extreme right). 

Youngest daughter Michelle (2nd from left) gave a complete (almost) and humorous talk that really captured her mom

....and the chance to reminisce with our group of longtime Palo Alto friends: Karen Bradshaw, Sara Gilman, Ludwiga and Mike Covert, Marguerite Hancock, Miriam, Leanne and Peter Giles, Ken Allen (Sue was busy in the kitchen), Darryl and Nanci Thomander (and others not pictured).

I also had the opportunity to visit several friends, some not well, and to join with other moms of our long-ago elementary school children (and two favorite teachers)

and to celebrate the birthday of dear friend Ludwiga Covert with a delicious, beautiful lunch hosted by Nanci Thomander

Top: Sue Allen, Ludwiga, Nanci, Marguerite Hancock; 

Bottom: Miriam, Leanne Giles, Colette Taylor, Karen Bradshaw (we have all been friends about 50 years!)

I spent a fabulous day at the Marin Headlands just outside the Golden Gate Bridge, so called because it reminded explorer John C. Fremont in 1846 of Istanbul's Golden Horn. It is the only break for 1000 miles along the coast and is the gateway to San Francisco Bay, draining 12 rivers, 40% of California's water, into the Pacific Ocean. The channel is one mile wide and 3 miles long. The weather was perfect!

Lunch beside the bay in Sausalito after the morning in one of my favorite places in the world...Muir Woods in Marin County....with my brother Roy and sister-in-law Julie who recently moved into their beautifully remodeled home near the campus in Berkeley.

a tribute to John Muir:

"Champion of the Natural World"

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." - John Muir

A leaf, a flower, a stone—the simple beauty of nature filled John Muir with joy. Muir shared his love of nature through writing and inspired people to protect our country's wild places, fueling the formation of the National Park Service and the modern conservation movement. Muir loved all things wild and saw humans as one small part of nature. He valued the natural world not only for economic gain, but for its beauty and healing powers. Muir championed the revolutionary idea that wild spaces should be set aside for all to enjoy.

John Muir was born on April 21, 1838, in Dunbar, Scotland, to Daniel and Ann Gilrye Muir. His father was a strict disciplinarian, and young John often found solace in the countryside. His grandfather, a nature lover, would take him on walks through the Scottish countryside, fostering his early appreciation for nature.

In 1849, when Muir was 11, the family immigrated to the United States, settling in Wisconsin. They started a farm, and Muir's nature lessons continued amidst the American wilderness. Despite his father’s insistence on hard labor and religious study, Muir managed to invent mechanical devices and immerse himself in the study of nature. He enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in 1860, where he studied biology, botany, and geology, laying the academic foundation for his future explorations.

These magnificent coastal redwoods live to 2,000 years, are the tallest trees (up to 320'high, 27' wide) on the planet, regenerate, intertwine their shallow roots, are resistant to insects, great for building, and so beautiful.

It's miraculous to observe the balance of nature if left undisturbed. For example, part of the stream was cleaned of debris, the fish died, so rocks and soil were put back and all is well!

In 1945, delegates from all over the world met in San Francisco to write and sign the charter of the United Nations. They gathered in Muir Woods to honor FDR, visionary of the UN, who had died a month before. He believed that National Parks and attention to forests and ecology promote peace. Teddy Roosevelt, his distant cousin and whose niece was Eleanor Roosevelt, was also a strong proponent of wilderness and parks.

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The next two days I enjoyed many classes from 8:30 AM to 8:30 PM at BYU Education Week in Provo. I took notes and photos because I knew I wouldn't remember more than a small percentage of what I heard!

from teaching kids to be resilient

to art (Notre Dame Cathedral, and Greek and Roman art), to heroines of the Old Testament...

to neurodiversity and Mindfulness (taught by my daughter Emily)

To tips for supportive grand-parenting 

To many Gospel topics

To religious art by Heinrich Hoffman

To the 12 Tribes of Israel and much much more! (This old clock is on the Western Wall in Jerusalem).

The following day I attended the beautiful temple wedding of Prince Selassie and Jessie Kportufe in the Timpanogos Temple in American Fork, Utah. Jessie and her sister Elsie from Ghana, but BYU grads and great women, lived with me in Palo Alto during the Covid pandemic until we all moved to Utah in late 2020-early 2021.

At the reception at Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City: Elsie with her mom and brother. Several guest came all the way from Africa.

and the funeral of friend Bob Galbraith from Palo Alto. The family moved from California to Kaysville several years ago, but there were many old friends in attendance. Bob was an incredibly talented musician, playing violin with the San Francisco opera orchestra and organ and other instruments for years. He was also extremely kind, loved to build, and had a nice sense of humor. His dear wife Janet played my favorite piece, Ashokan Farewell, written in 1982 for Ken Burn's Civil War documentary, but in the waltz style of a Scottish lament. She's an exquisite violinist also.

Also on Saturday  August 24th, wonderful friend and inspiration Susan Petersen Gong, passed away. Here is part of her obituary. She is the sister-in-law of Elder Gerrit W. Gong for those who know him.

" She passed peacefully in her sleep, just as she hoped. Since her cancer diagnosis in November 2022, we have treasured the tender and joyful time we have been able to spend together with her. Here is one of her favorite poems:

On Becoming a God Adonis Remembers the World

Of all I leave, most beautiful is the sunlight.

Next come stars at nightfall, and the moon's face,

and in season, peaches, muskmelons, and pears.

Praxilla, 5th Century B.C.E. 

There will be no public funeral. Each person is invited to have their own personal memorial of Sue, the way she would have wanted it."

 Charleston, South Carolina, our post Schweinitz reunion trip

       Last evening of our Salem, North Carolina Schweinitz reunion. Goodbye to new and old friends from Germany, Austria, England, US

          It was a long drive from Winston-Salem to Charleston so we (Ken, Emily, Aaron, Andrew, Lucie Taylor, Julius von Schweinitz :cousin from Vienna and next year's reunion in Vienna organizer, and I) were glad to enjoy the evening on the waterfront by the old French quarter. SC is very hot and humid, so everyone was out in the evening to enjoy a little cooler air.

The pineapple is the symbol of hospitality. Sailors would place one on their doorstep to welcome a visit from those they had not seen for awhile.

             Even a mariachi band to celebrate a marriage proposal

Monday morning we drove to Mount Pleasant to the east of the bay to visit Boone Hall, a beautiful plantation with a sobering history. It was founded in 1681 and saw 5 generations until 1811. The current owners,

the MacRaes have owned it since 1955, and have greatly renovated the house. These southern live oaks can live 500-700 years.

 Rice and indigo and then cotton were the main crops. With the invention of the cotton gin, there was a huge need to increase the slave labor for picking. These important export mostly .  to Britain crops were replaced by pecans (largest producers in the US), which take 14 years to produce. From 1619-1816, 40% of the slaves from Africa, especially from Angola and today's DRC, arrived in Charleston. These crops and the skills and labor of slaves made Carolina home to the richest families on the American continent. 

The Boones supplied timber from trees in the forests to other colonies for ship building, etc., and traded deer skins they bought from native Americans in exchange for guns, axes, cooking pots.

    The Spanish moss, not really moss, but a bromeliad, called oka or      tree hair by some! It was used to fill mattresses, etc.

We listened to the fascinating history of the Gullah (African conglomerate of peoples from many countries) told and sung/rapped by a lovely Gullah woman. Many pooled their money, bought land and stayed after the end of the Civil War.

Music was not for entertainment, but a way of life, to identify tribes (most were from West Africa), to transmit coded messages to help the enslaved escape. Escapees tied branches to their feet to brush away their tracks. Instruments, especially drums were banned, so chants and songs were key. The Gullah made, and still make, and sell beautiful sweet grass baskets. Our friend and relative Johnnie Mae de Schweinitz (who attended our Salem reunion the week before) is descended from a Gullah man, Robert Smalls, whose owner taught him to read and write, not to plant. He learned the waterways and handled boats, and eventually was able to commandeer one, the CSSPlanter, to escape with his own and other wives and children and come over to the Union, where he fought in 17 battles! He served 5 terms in the House of Representatives!

Each restored slave cabin had a theme. One portrayed important events and leaders of the Civil Rights movement.

As we waited that afternoon for our boat ride to Fort Sumter, we looked at the exhibit of slaves who died in the Gadsen (owner of slave wharf) harbor, where they were sold; later sold on street corners until slave houses for selling were mandated in 1780. Until the importation of slaves was abolished in 1808, 200,000 men women and children were sold from Africa and the Caribbean. 

Monday was Lucie's 14th birthday. After a spicy Thai dinner we attended a fun audience participation play (comedy) at the Black Fedora (small theater in Charleston). Ken, Emily, Andrew and Aaron were amazingly funny actors (given a script, investigating a murder!)

The next morning we got up early, drove to Morris Island where we took a boat to find small black sharks' teeth fossils in the sand!

In the afternoon the others went crabbing (by boat) while I took a private (no one else signed up, so I was lucky my very nice and knowledgeable guide Faith Rose did not cancel) tour of the old quarter. Above is the entrance to the large old market.

          One of three fire towers built after the earthquake of 1886

St Philips Anglican church (1723). It was Anglican, the only churches paid for by taxes. All other denominations, except Catholics, were allowed to build/worship, but had to fund themselves. No building can be taller than 5 stories (houses 3) in the historic district which was within the old walls. Each street ended in a dock. 

  The French Huguenot Church built in 1687, rebuilt in 1845 in Gothic style.

The beautiful Dock Street Theater, the first theater in America. Speaking of theaters, Abraham Lincoln was supposed to be in Charleston that night in 1865, instead of in the Booth Theater where he was shot.

The pink (oldest ) house (1713), a tavern originally. About 1/4-1/3 of the buildings were taverns. It was built of 18" thick imported stone.

Houses were mandated in 1741 to have separate detached kitchens because so many homes had caught fire during the 1886 earthquake. The house slaves were housed above the kitchen in very hot, window- poor rooms.

The Exchange building (1771) sold timber, rice, indigo on the first floor; the lower floor was for storage and only later did the British take it over as a dungeon. 

President George Washington visited Charleston for 8 days in 1791, giving the city a painting of Trumble's "Signing of the Declaration of Independence." Trumble sent them "GW in Trenton." They wanted him to paint GW in Charleston, so the painter mockingly painted a tiny city between the legs of his __ horse! It was called "Trumble's Revenge" for their ingratitude!

         The beautiful "Rainbow Row" houses, with bottom floor for merchants' offices (they were across from the wharves), upper floors were homes. They became slums until realtor Susan Pringle Frost bought them for 5 cents a square foot in 1925, and ladies went to the city council and had them refurbished. Today they are on landfill (once the moat around the city wall) 

Charleston, St. Augustine in Florida and Quebec City, were the only walled cities in America, needed to defend against the British and the Spanish. The Charleston sea wall was built in 1820. It enclosed 62 acres.

Good homes all had piazzas, used as sleeping and resting porches. The front door did not go into the main house but into the piazza. If the door was open, guests were welcome, if closed, passersby were not even supposed to look at the home.

                      St, Matthews Lutheran church 1840 is to be the tallest building in the old part of the city

                       A detached kitchen (required after earthquake fires)

The circular Congregational church on Meeting Street . I then went to market and bought some pictures and tablecloths while waiting for the crabbers to pick me up!

The last day we drove to Edisto Island (far left on the map), which was extremely hot and humid. With climate change, the coast has eroded leaving many uprooted trees, shells, and crabs.

We ate lunch at a great restaurant (Coleman Public House), took Julius to the hotel where he would stay a few more days, went to the small Charleston airport for our 6 pm flight. We got home to Provo at midnight.

 End of a very interesting week.Now back to hot but dry Utah with 

lots of memories