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Archiver > RICHMOND > 2001-02 > 0981884903


From: Colleen Pustola <>
Subject: [RICHMOND] SUNDAY MORNING COFFEE
Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2001 02:48:23 -0700



)
(
) Good Morning Family!
.-.,--^--. ( Come on in. . .
\\|`----'| - The coffee pot's on. . .
\| |// ...and we even have decaf,
| |/ tea, and hot chocolate!
\ /
------


Today's topics include:

1. Welcome to new cousins
2. Did you know?...
3. Ancestral valentines


If you've been with the family for at least three weeks, you'll probably
want to skip the following paragraphÂ…

TO OUR NEWEST COUSINS ~~

On behalf of the entire family, I'd like to extend a most hearty welcome
to those cousins who came into the family fold this past week. We are
very glad to have you with us and hope you'll stay and remain a part of
our online family. As soon as you're comfortable with us and the list,
please send in your list-surname lines so we can all see how we're
related to you. We do not have a fancy format for sending in records or
queries to the list. Post as many as you wish! If the data has
anything to do with our list-surname ancestors that might help someone,
please feel free to post it. Every scrap of information is appreciated.

DID YOU KNOW?...

With love and romance in the air and Valentine's Day just two days away,
I thought you might like to know the most accepted legend about the
champion of true love and courtship...

The Lupercian festival, a tribute to the God of fertility and a
celebration of sensual pleasure was also a time a time to meet and court
a prospective mate. Those rites, dating back to long before Christ's
time, originally paid tribute to the Roman crop god, Faunus, whose
festival of Lupercalia was on February 15. On Lupercalia Eve, Roman
youths would draw virgins' names from an urn, then squire their chosen
maiden for the fete. The main event was a ceremony in which the young
women vied to be touched with sacred goatskin thongs called februa
(February). Pope Gelasius outlawed the pagan celebration in 496 A.D.,
replacing it with a similar, morally suitable celebration. The martyred
bishop, Valentine, was chosen as the "lovers" patron saint to replace
the pagan deity, Lupercus.

Valentine was a Roman priest about 269 A.D., during the time of Emperor
Claudis. Claudius was having trouble getting men to serve in his army,
sensing that many men would not volunteer to join because they did not
want to leave their wives and families. He felt that if men were not
married, they would be more temperamentally disposed toward soldiering.
So, Claudius passed a new law prohibiting marriage. Most people felt
the law was cruel, including Valentine.

According to legend, after Emperor Claudius' new edict, Valentine
performed secret marriages for soldiers and their sweethearts until he
was discovered. He was thrown in jail and sentenced to death. Before
execution, Valentine himself fell in love with his jailer's daughter.
The two conducted a clandestine correspondence until the eve of his
execution, when he wrote her a final letter pledging undying love and
signed it "Love from your Valentine," a phrase that has lasted through
the centuries. Valentine was beheaded February 14, 269 A.D.

The pagan festival died out, but Pope Gelasius' hopes of people
emulating the lives of saints died out as well. Instead, people
celebrated the more romantic aspect of Saint Valentine's religious life.
While not immediately as popular as the more passionate pagan festival,
eventually the concept of celebrating true love became known as
Valentine's Day.

ANCESTRAL VALENTINES

He was a widower of just four months with six young children to raise.
He married her not for the sake of love, but to give his children a
mother. Yet she saw something in him, for this 19 year old beauty
married him on August 23rd, 1847 even with his large family, and gave
him nine more children over their years together. They grew to love
each other and grow old together. They were my great-great
grandparents.

He was 18 and a lumberjack living a camp life. She was 16, just 4'10"
tall with blue eyes and long, golden hair full of ringlets. But she was
feisty, strong-willed, and would stand up for herself and their
children. They married July 4, 1884; he loved her furiously and she
adored him. They were my great-grandparents.

The age-old triangle ~ he loved her; she loved someone else. So, he
took up with her sister. It wasn't long and they both felt the stirring
embers of love take hold. He left for basic training during World War I
and she wrote him everyday; he did the same to her. On December 26,
1917 he married her... just two days before departing for France, and
the War. He returned to her in 1919 and they lived a love so strong
that their grown children still talk about it today. They were my
grandparents.

He was wearing his Navy uniform, home on leave from boot camp. A young
boy told the sailor that the lady across the room in the Navy dress
wanted to meet him. Thus began a courtship that was to be interrupted
by World War II. Two years of constant letter writing forged their
love. He returned from sea duty in the Pacific in 1945 and married her
just months later, that November 27th. They celebrated their 50th
wedding anniversary in 1995. They were my parents.

I have my own story of love. However, if it hadn't been for a
tarot-reading friend, a party, a beer game, a broken engagement, and a
New Year's Eve date there might not be a story. But there is a story
that lead up to April 6, 1968 ~ and it will be told... to the
grandchildren who ask the same questions I asked of the generations
preceeding me.

And so it goes... a story of love for each generation... stories that
are the beginning of descendants who follow. You look at their
pictures, old and faded; you look at their marriage certificates ~
wrinkled, torn, yellowed. Yet behind the faces in those pictures,
behind that certificate is a story... one you won't find in the marriage
records, nor recorded in a family Bible. They are stories of love,
laughter and triumph, sorrow and despair... stories that "you had to be
there" to fully appreciate or understand. The stories of love itself
don't change; only the people and their times do. And, if those eyes in
a photograph could come to life just for a minute, I'm sure there would
be a faraway dreamy look within them as they told the story of how it
came to be that you are, and I am.

Family ~ appreciating the enrichment of our seniors' stories and
realizing the ultimate treasure within each one... it's what we're all
about.

I really enjoyed this time with you. It was so nice. Thank you for
sharing it with me. I hope your upcoming week is filled with health,
fun, productivity, and above all, filled with love.

)
(
)
_.-~~-.
(@\'--'/. Colleen
('``.__.'`)
`..____.'


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