Exceptional Women At The Cemetery

Main Entrance to Cedar Hill Cemetery (photo by K. Inboden).

Once again, I visited Cedar Hill Cemetery this morning to attend one their "tours." Today's tour was "Cedar Hill's Exceptional Women." It was led by Women's historian Grace Parks Mitchell. It highlighted the accomplishments of some of Cedar Hill's most notable women including:

• Virginia Thrall Smith
• Isabella Beecher Hooker
• Elizabeth Jarvis Colt
• Anne Tracy Morgan
• Katharine (Kit) Houghton Hepburn (the mother of the famous actress). The actress is also buried in the family plot here.

My  Webster's New World Dictionary (Second College Edition) defines "exceptional" as: not ordinary or average; much above average in quality, ability, etc. There is also a second definition which says "exceptional" is needing special attention or presenting a special problem, as in education, because mentally gifted or, esp., because mentally, physically, or emotionally handicapped. Ironically, in the context of today's tour, in many ways both these definitions are applicable. The tour guide seemed to define "exceptional" in the context of contemporary expectations for women. Many of the accomplishments (see for yourself by following the above links) have to do with promoting birth control and activities that transcended the unique responsibilities that women bear in the family.

It was a beautiful September morning; the slight chill was a bit invigorating. I was surprised that the turnout was pretty sparse despite good publicity: less than a dozen (and mostly regulars). Again, no young people attending. Mostly gray hairs like me but older (I think). The youngest seemed to be the Cemetery Director.

As usual, the tour starts near the flagpole with a brief overview and then we walked to the various graves where a brief biography was reported. The tour lasted from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and ended at the Hepburn plot (see picture below).

Hepburn family plot.

By the end of the tour I had a lot of mixed feelings. Many of the women had struggled against the limitations that society had in place during their time. And yet, despite our so-called progress, society still places all of us in confining categories (race, economic status, sex, age, religion, political affiliation, etc.). In hindsight, these categories are presented as stifling and deliberately and brutally oppressive. However, in their context, such categories are merely a sense of social order for stability.

Many of the women discussed during this tour struggled against the systems in place designed to uphold the role of women as mothers and the heart of the family. During our time, the family has been denigrated and women are being encouraged to be like men. As one who is pro-family as well as pro-woman, I wrestle with the lines that exist and the ones that have been severed. It is somewhat ironic that these thoughts occur in a cemetery.
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Links:
http://www.cedarhillcemetery.org/
http://cedarhillfoundation.org/notable-residents/virginia-thrall-smith
http://cedarhillfoundation.org/notable-residents/isabella-beecher-hooker/
http://cedarhillfoundation.org/notable-residents/elizabeth-colt/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Morgan_(philanthropist)
http://cedarhillfoundation.org/notable-residents/kit-houghton-hepburn/
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Written Sunday 27 September 2015

Many Things Have Happened.

Monday August 31, 2015 "letter" from Fr. Hattie received via email.

Below is my transcription of the letter (shown above) which I received from Fr. Hattie via email on Monday August 31, 2015. It was a nice gift to receive because August 31st is a tough day for me since it is the anniversary of my (failed) marriage. Also, see below for another significance for August 31st.

Anyway, as usual, I have taken the liberty of giving the scan a slight tint to suggest the Aerogram letters that Father used to send when he was overseas. My transcription has also attempted to make up for any typos or light impressions or overstrikes from Father's manual typewriter. As you can see (above), Father literally types his letter and has someone scan it to a JPEG file and email it to me.

Overall, my goals for the transcription are to make it easier for anyone to read the letter but not to compromise the intent and meaning. If I missed something or got it wrong or if there is something you don't understand, please let me know (e.g., post a comment below or email me or call me, etc).

For other letters from Father Hattie to me, as well as information on how to contact Fr. Hattie, see my Fr. Hattie page. It also includes information on how you can donate to help "his" orphans in Nsumba, Uganda.

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My dear Rick:                  Peace of Christ!

     Hope that you have not been bothered by this late reply. But, Sr. Christine is a full-time teacher and is Superior of her community and has to do this work between jobs. In any case, thanks so much for your kind, thoughtful & generous Gift of $XX.00 for my kids, appreciated much more because the number of former donors is decreasing little by little. It is the 'regulars' who keep the orphanage going. The people who have much don't seem to want to give. So, thank God for loyal friends like you.

     During the past 2 weeks many things have happened. I celebrated my 75 years as a Jesuit & 62 years as a priest.[*]  It would seem that I am one of the oldest Members of the Province. The good Lord must have good reasons for allowing me [to] hang in there for so long.

     We had another funeral. This poor priest had been a mere vegetable for the past 16 years...remembered nothing, recognized no one & had to be fed and bathed like a baby. It was a blessing that God finally called him Home. He had only 2 living sisters & no one else.

     I hope that this is not a repetition, but a short while back I had a delightful visit with a young African Jesuit priest whom I had taught in Uganda. You can be sure that I had a 100 questions about Africa & all my friends there.

     I just saw in the newspaper that the President & Vice President of Southern Sudan had signed a Peace agreement after 2 years of war. Poor Sudan (both North & South) haven't known real peace for about 30 years & it has always been about Muslims and Christian[s]. This time the UN & the USA threatened all kinds of sanctions if they did not sign a peace agreement. Let us hope and pray that this one will last. Over the past 30 years, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed & millions displaced. When I was in So. Sudan for 2 years, whenever we left the compound, we never had any certainty of returning. This present war is a war, also, between the two main Tribes for supremacy.  It is a shame, that although Africa is, by far, the richest Continent, it is also the poorest. But, more of that later. Until next time,

Tons of love & gratitude for your latest generous Gift of $XX.00 for my kids.

Fr. Gene, SJ

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Notes:

* See biography of Fr. Hattie. According to the article, he became a member of the Jesuits on August 31, 1940 and ordained a priest on November 21, 1953.
** I don't know exactly what article Fr. Hattie saw about the South Sudan peace agreement, but I found an article from Reuters from August 26th that provides some details. There is a lot of info about the UN in Sudan and the war. I usually like to start at Wikipedia and go from there.
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Links:

http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2011/08/it-was-20-years-ago-today.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogram
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typewriter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG
http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/p/letters-from-fr-hattie.html
http://www.visituganda.com/
http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2013/08/father-hattie.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/26/us-southsudan-unrest-president-idUSKCN0QV1MF20150826
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Mission_in_Sudan
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Written Sunday October 25. 2015.

Balloon Hunt!

Yesterday on our way home from the Terryville Country Fair , I lamented to my son, Richard, that we probably missed the 2015 Plainville Fire Company Hot Air Balloon Festival. Now, he has mixed feelings about hot air balloons since we attended the NW CT Balloon Festival and Craft Fair in Goshen, CT in (I think) 2003. That was real neat because we saw a lot of unusual shapes such as a huge American flag, and a space shuttle. But what he would like to forget probably is that we got up at 5 a.m. to drive an hour to see them take off at 6 a.m. (Did we do that?)

In 2012 we spent the day at the Plainville Hot Air Balloon Fest and Car Show and returned that evening to watch take off at 6 p.m. but all we got to see was a couple of balloons filled up, with one tethered. I think one might have lifted off.

So as we were driving home yesterday, we decided to swing by the park in Plainville to see if anything was going on. And it sure was. We got stuck in a tremendous traffic jam. Thank God for A/C.

We were almost near the park by 6 p.m. when we spotted several balloons in the air, having just lifted off. Richard spotted one that seemed to have difficulty gaining altitude and "suggested" that we try to follow it instead of battling the crowds at the park, etc. And so we did.

Several times we thought it was about to land (or crash). Finally, it actually did touch down in the parking lot of an abandoned factory. But then, as we were turning around and trying to decide what to do, it took off again!

Just about ready to land (first time) behind the factory in background.

As we resumed our hunt, Richard noticed a large pickup truck with a magnetic sign identifying it as a hot air balloon support vehicle. And then we realized that the SUV following us was also an official balloon chase vehicle. So we tried to keep them in sight.

When it seemed as though the balloon had disappeared behind the trees in front of us into a lake, we lost sight of the chase vehicles and the balloon. When we found a nearby adjacent road, the balloon had regained lift and was actually soaring pretty well. So we headed home (with our eyes open).

As we got to the top of a ridge, we again spotted the balloon as it appeared to be descending (again). And then we saw the chase vehicles again and we rejoined the pursuit!

Touchdown! A safe landing!

Unfortunately, we didn't actually see the balloon land but we encountered it shortly after it touched down in a cul-de-sac in a residential neighborhood. Boy, were those home owners surprised!

Me, Richard, and Hot Air Balloon

Everyone was out on their front lawn staring in amazement at the visitors from the sky. We learned that there were four passengers (two couples). When it first landed in the factory parking lot, one of the men had to jump out and give the basket a push (to get them in the right direction apparently and away from the trees and wires).

Quickly, as the sun was setting (in the background), everyone helped to pack up the balloon. Even we were enlisted. Each of us hoisted a section of the rolled up balloon on our shoulders and marched over to the truck and stuffed it in a "small" bag.

Starting to deflate the balloon.

Disassembly

Roll up the balloon.

Stuffing the balloon in its bag.

And so it was surprisingly quickly over. Though we missed seeing the inflation and take off, we ended up witnessing a much more exciting chase and safe conclusion and actually became (a small) part of the flight.

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Links:

http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2015/08/at-terryville-country-fair.html
http://www.plainvillefireco.com/Balloon_Festival.html

Written Sunday August 30, 2015.