Carol and Becky's Web

Welcome to our web!

We're so glad you've come.

We have some catching up to do! We hardly know where to begin! This year has been a Year of Reunions for us - some with family, some with classmates, some with other friends.

Early in the year we took a trip to the great Northwest. Our first stop was Portland to visit Carol's daughter Nancy and to ski Mt. Hood with Nancy and granddog Josh, Nancy's partner Gary and brother David. Our next stop was Seattle to see Becky's daughter Jessica, on tour with the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in her first equity role - as Eurydice in a modern version of Ovid's "Metamorphoses".

On our way home we stopped in NYC to help Becky's high school classmate Joe Ahumada celebrate his 60th birthday. Becky's best old friends Ruth and Harry Tomlinson were there too and we had a wonderful time schmoozing!

March took Carol to Spain with a group of relatively senior citizens including good friend Claire and former Concord Chorus friends Cynthia and Annette. The trip consisted of a tour of the southern part of Spain (the Costa del Sol) - cities like Granada and Sevilla full of lovely Moorish architecture, side trips to Gibraltar and Morocco, and two glorious days in Madrid with its incredible art museums. (The next trip will have to include Barcelona and Bilbao!)

Later in the springtime we had a visit from Carol's daughter Pam and her family - husband Yehuda, and three grandchildren - two girls, Seri (age 5) and Teferet (age 1), and one boy Natik (age 3). They were here from Israel for only a couple of weeks so there was lots of activity crammed into a pretty short time. There were visits from other members of Carol's family too of course: cousins James and Julia, daughter Nancy here from Portland, sister Joan from western NY, one niece Tennessee from Seattle, the other two nieces Sara and Gwen from Arlington MA along with grandnephews Andrew and Sam!! Other highlights of the visit were a trip to the Children's Museum in Boston, and strolls around our "New View" cohousing community where there are lots of other little kids for the grandchildren to enjoy.

In June there was a congregation of the Bishop flock, in and around the Cape Cod home of cherished member cousin Jane. There were four generations there. The elders present were Aunt Helen and Cousin Ruth. The youngest there (in utero!) was Becky's first cousin twice removed, Simone Estella Smith, who was born 3 months later on September 11 to Lissy and Dominique. The familial link to all was Becky's late grandmother Maud Bishop, shown here with Becky's parents in an old snapshot taken more than 30 years ago and supplied to the electronic family archives by Cousin Helen.

Another June event was the 45th reunion of Carol's Radcliffe class, a very active group that also gets together for a weekend in the country every fall. The reunion events (panels, dinners and, mostly, conversations) were fun, nostalgic and stimulating, and Becky got to know a few of Carol's old friends a little better.

In July we drove down to Pennsylvania for the 60th anniversary of the founding of Bryn Gweled, the co-operative community where Becky grew up. A wonderful time! Seeing so many peers from Becky's youth. And friends of her siblings Maudie and Jake. And friends of her parents, from long ago and not-so-long ago. And friends that she and her children had made during all those summers that they went back to BG for swimming and basket-making and gardening and covered-dish suppers.

Later in the summer we flew out to Seattle and then by seaplane to Saturna Island off the coast of Vancouver. We were there for a week for a writing and sailing workshop led by Ferron, a wonderful Canadian singer and songwriter particularly famous in the lesbian community. We had a remarkable time with the group that had gathered for this retreat!

After Saturna's idyll, another family reunion - this time Carol's, at Lake Tahoe for nephew Justin's wedding. Tahoe is a strange mixture - a great place for hiking, sailing, biking, etc. and, being partly in Nevada, also a great place for gambling. The two of us settled for renting bikes on a gentle trail one day and driving to Yosemite another, and let the "kids" try out the casinos and the rugged biking trails.

Becky's 60th birthday finally arrived, right on schedule, in late September. Carol organized a wonderful party in the New View common house with a lot of help from Becky's daughter Rachel and partner Jon. The theme for the evening was balloons - the kind you can pop and the kind you can ride. Becky's present from Carol, Rachel and Jon was a balloon ride out in Northampton which was postponed due to high winds and will have to wait til spring.

Last month Becky's daughter Jessica and her fiance James came east from California to visit dad Sydney and have a special pre-marital ceremony, including the signing of a Ketubah (a Jewish marriage contract). They will be officially married next June in California.

Sooo..... is this web site just too much treacle to bear? Just so you know, there's a dark side to every one of these stories - arguments about money, about each other's kids, about whose ideas get priority. Maybe we'll get into all that the next time we update this site!!

We'd love to hear from you! Click here for Becky's email address or here for Carol's email address.