Gumma said that one of Papsi’s brothers — Erich, I think — I’ll look in the files to find out for sure — had difficulty establishing himself. Gumma remembers that he and his family went to South Africa to start a plantation in the bush. Her uncle went on a hunting trip and was gone […]
I found this card with my grandmother’s handwriting  in a stack of photographs from the 1980s — Woodstock, NY to Anna Maria, FL.  The green 3 x 5″ card with loopy handwriting, is typical of Gioja’s filing.  What these particular odds and ends had in common, I do not know.  The card seems an appropriate image […]
Adie was Estebena Risse, our great, great aunt. She was Anita Risse’s sister – twin, I believe. She brought up Gumma and Dita after their mother died. They called her ‘Adie Dear,’ and she had been an intimate member of their household since their births. Both Adie and her sister died of stomach cancer not too […]
Gumma said that when she was born her mother held her up in the rain (does it ever rain in El Paso, Texas?) and named her Gioja. This was just one of the many ways she was different from her very extraordinary sister, Dita. Her sister, Anita Estebana Cecilia etc., had seven names, seven attendant godmothers, […]
Tagged Anita, Dita, Gioja, Risse, Stallforth