Spirited Sisters

By Xlibris US

Spirited Sisters captures six generations of family stories. These spirited women form a family heritage for the current generations identity. Daunting tales of escape introduce Babka, a young Polish Jewess. Though she was spirited, Babka was challenged when her youngest daughter, Bernice, converted to Pentecostalism and joined the love of her life in South India.

Next, additional Grandmoms lives add insights from the Western prairie and in the Oklahoma Territory. They share how the Scotts treasured their families as well as human rights. Amanda and her daughter Lenora provide a sequel to Ruth Byrd Barnett and Freddie Estelle, who are both from old English stock. Pentecostal fervor revivals prompted Estelle to work in Maharastra, India, while Ruth Barnett supported abolishment of racial bigotry and supported womens voting rights in the United States. The next generation brought Ruth Burgess and Helen Sullivan, Estelles daughters, into lives intermingled with cultural diversity between western and eastern ways of living with diverse challenges. Spirited Sisters chronologies how these spirited women have diversely and often creatively dealt with change and continuity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499005387

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Ruth Vassar Burgess.

Scripture were taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Library of Congress Control Number:      2014907344

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-4990-0542-4

      Softcover      978-1-4990-0544-8

      eBook      978-1-4990-0538-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

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without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 07/17/2014

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Contents

Chapter One   They Came From The North,South, East, And West

An Introduction

Chapter Two   The Bargain

Frances and Sophia

Chapter Three   My God Child

Bernice and Amelia

Chapter Four   The Town’s Sweetheart

Amanda A. and Charlotte

Chapter Five   Mason Canning Jars

Lenora and Sarah

Chapter Six   Looking Beyond, Enabling The Future

Ruth E. and Mary Katherine

Chapter Seven   The Spirit Descended

Estelle and Clara

Chapter Eight   Not A Misbegotton Male

Ruth L. and Vanessa

Chapter Nine   Bury My Heart In India

Helen and Amanda E.

Chapter Ten   Lest We Forget

CHAPTER ONE

They Came from the North,

South, East, and West

1.1%20The%20Burgess%20Grandchildren%20(2010).tif

The Burgess Grandchildren (2010)

Samuel Wesley Burgess was born three months after this picture was taken.

Introduction

In Spirited Sisters I am writing to preserve family history and heritage. Selecting my daughter and seven granddaughters as actresses, we will cover six generations of oral history and folkways. Although our stories are largely from the feminine perspective, these stories include the male members as well. We welcome others who are interested in intergenerational folkways to join our spirited sisters’ pilgrimage.

This journey begins on diverse shores in the past. By forming a bridge that connects the shores, one begins to understand values that exceed time, place, circumstance, events, and persons. Using the transcendent bridge metaphor, our stories attempt to go from one bank while avoiding the swift societal river currents and bringing our grandmom’s stories of lives well lived to the current muddy, eroding banks. I want you to understand that your foremothers faced many challenges and overcame them in many spirited and sometimes spunky and creative ways. They passed a torch forward to me through their grounded beliefs, folk stories, and wisdom principles. Now, you will decide how you will pass this treasury on to other generations.

Spirited Sisters is a collection of narratives about you and the women who not only molded your bodies but also created your spirits and minds. This includes the dispositions of your spirit that causes you to love, to wonder, to vision, to be joyful, to sob, to be civil, and to create melodies heard and understood only by the unseen angels. Our awesome spirited sisters helped set the parameters, which gave form to how you learn and even how you think. Their ethereal wisdom infused our ethnologic even though we live on this blessed earth during different early times and in multiple spaces. It is my expectation that you too will add to these stories and carry their transcendent values to future generations.

While we may read of formal accounts, such as different types of histories and documents, our heritage ways tend to be more informal and personal. These include our beliefs, folkways, and how to make decisions. Our heritage encourages us to love, to carefully trust in one or others, to seek adventures, to believe in a hereafter, as well as to care for those who are different or are in need. We gain our strength from within, not from external coercions. Yet there is another condition called mystique. It tends to be somewhat intuitive. We do not fully understand but recognize this phenomenon. Certainly feminine mystique is authentic in our family.

We treasure the knowledge that we are girls accepting life’s challenges while experiencing different stages of maturation. Surely our feminine mystique flows intergenerationally. This intermingling of cultural ways forms a sisterhood. Though our individual physiques may be compared to clay pots—which have been decorated in different colors, shapes, and forms—eventually they become faded, cracked, broken, or marred, our spirits continue to flow beyond our lives. In this life, you are to love intensely and deeply. Your visions are to extend beyond common expectations. You are challenged to combine thoughtfulness with determination. Yet you are to laugh, giggle, smile, and be joyful because your mind will be renewed in these merriment acts. Mourn for yourself and others when trauma comes, for authenticity is good. Bless the memories of those who have passed on, and your heart and souls will be healed of loneliness. Be known for your kindness and civility because you have ethical cores that cannot be bought. Then feel the rhythms of the universe as you hunt, sing, laugh, paint, dance, and feel the breeze renewing your inner core. Know and appreciate that every one of you has been blessed by living in these moments and places. If your heritage spirited sisters were among us, they would extend love and cherish you.

Once again, why have I written Spirited Sisters? Recently I became aware—no, I was amazed that I am one of the few who knew most of you, with the exception of Babka Andrulewicz. It was through family stories I came to revere her. For the rest of them, I was fortunate to have known and loved their lively spirits. Because of their values, I want you to know these culture-bearing women better. Certainly these spirited sisters lived by values that have sustained several generations.

Limiting the number of dedications and sister stories was difficult. Other life stories, yet to be written, have impacted our lives. Their love and friendship brought additional meanings, much like a beautiful rainbow after a tepid summer rain. But space provided limitations. Their stories are yet to be written.

No spurious omission of the men in our heritage is intended. Their stories will fill another volume. Some fought in one of these military venues: Eli Vassar was in the Civil War; Ben Vassar, Wallace Vassar, and Max Martindale fought in World War II; Paul Vassar had duty in Viet Nam; and Matthew Levinson served in active duty during the Gulf War. Ira Scott was a farmer in the red clay soil of Oklahoma. James Byrd built mills while the Hobson family owned the first cotton gin in Texas. Pioter Andrulewicz was a Pennsylvania coal miner while Thomas J. Barnett and Ted R. Vassar II worked in the Texas oil fields. John H. Burgess started a Bible College while Ted R. Vassar I cared for an orphanage, school, and farm in India. John A. Vassar was a veterinarian while his great-grandson Scott V. Burgess became a medical physician. Stanley M. Burgess earned a doctor of philosophy degree in European history and became a noted author and teacher. His eldest son, J. Bradley Burgess, became an astute businessman while his younger brother S. Matthew Burgess became a prudent attorney. Youngest, but not least, was J. David Burgess who became a Presbyterian minister and earned a doctorate of ministries degree. This tribe could be described as honorable, intelligent, loving, and faithful to their God and families.

Not all your grandmoms left printed materials. So their stories are told through our oral history tradition of storytelling. In Spirited Sister, I create word pictures by spinning folk stories, giving varied recipes, integrating letters, and sharing pictures. Yes, each chapter carries a dedication to each one of you, younger sisters. Perhaps you will recognize some similarities with each other or with your earlier grandmoms. You will wonder at their courageous acts. These may amaze and encourage you to aspire to do awesome things that will strengthen our sisterhood. Certainly you will feel the love they shared with us.

Letters, diplomas, certificates, and memories support the statement that each of your grandmothers had sincere beliefs in God. Praying, reading Holy Scriptures, and trying to be a righteous person for her family and community guided their lives. Certainly, there was diversity in their forms of spirituality. Amanda McClain Scott even had this inscribed on her tombstone: I’ll meet you in heaven. There was a Jewess, a Catholic, and a variety of Christian denominations: Huguenots, Church of England, Christian Church, Baptist Church, Dutch Reformed, and Assembly of God.

Why Are Lived Histories Significant?

Family lived histories are significant because they help establish temporal and spatial understanding of the past as well as a better understanding of the present. Questioning is good. That is how our spirit and thoughts develop. Ask questions concerning as to where was your family during a time period? What were their beliefs and how were these demonstrated? How have their decisions impacted your life? What are the relationships between your private heritage and public history? The young need to know they have both private as well as the public heritages. Recognize there are relationships between parts and wholes. From questioning the young come to understand they possess both individual and group identities within larger society values and events.

But how will the young know unless they learn through folkways? Culture bearers must step forward and perform this needed life-sustaining task. Indeed, by preserving a reasoned and principled heritage, we preserve our loved ones and ourselves. The young are to be treasured because it is only through them that one’s reasoned and principled heritage can be transmitted into the future. We share more than a common DNA; we share a spiritual energy. If the young do not know to carry on their heritage, it will slip away into oblivion.

Self-identity as well as group identity become solidified when there is a realization of where and from whom one evolved. This produces a sense of stability of emotions as well as creates a propensity within the young to engage in abstract thinking and reasoning. Children can learn to think and draw understandings outside of their present circumstances. This sense of belonging extends beyond the present. Through these mediated heritage experiences, children extend their ability to think through time and space. Using mediation support, they develop habits of the mind and spirit whereby they are able to reason and care for others as well as the earth.

Where Did We Call Home?

You might say that your heritage families did not let grass grow under their feet. Because of political and religious persecution as well as the hope for better economic circumstances, the Pioter and Frances Andrulewicz family traveled from Poland and settled in Luzerne, Pennsylvania. Their youngest daughter, Bernice, extended her understanding of home to stays in Mavelikara, South India; Muskegon, Michigan; and finally to Springfield, Missouri, USA.

While Amanda McClain Scott was born in Nebraska, she spent most of her adulthood in an Oklahoma village called Tryon. Her daughter Lenora left central Oklahoma and settled in the Osage Hills of northern Oklahoma. The town was called Pawhuska.

Ruth Byrd Barnett was born in Pocahontas, Tennessee, but lived in north central Texas, following the oil booms. One of these towns was Charley, Texas, where Estelle was born. Much like the West Texas tumbleweeds, Estelle’s homes were in Poona, Junnar, and Kodaikanal, India. While in the States, she lived primarily in West Texas.

Much of Ruth Lenora’s early life was in India, but the place she considered home was on Burgess Acres. This stony forty acres is located on Farm Road 94 in Greene County, Missouri. In contrast, her sister Helen Elizabeth Earp Sullivan was born in Bowie, Texas, but her beloved homes were in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, India.

These families brought diversity. They blended their former cultural ways, and new patterns were created.

Spirited Sisterhood

You are part of the spirited girls who helped spawn you and made positive contributions to our world. Now in the Burgess-Vassar-Sullivan-Levinson clans, we blend our characteristics among sixteen spirited girls, who form an intergenerational sisterhood. They represent six generations of becoming and loving.

Generation 1:

Sophia Burgess, Charlotte Burgess, Amelia Burgess, Mary Kate Burgess, Clara Burgess, Sadie Burgess, Vanessa Levinson

Generation 2:

Amanda Burgess Levinson

Generation 3:

Ruth Vassar Burgess, Helen Vassar Earp Sullivan

Generation 4:

Bernice Francis Andrews Burgess, Estelle Barnett Vassar Leggett

Generation 5:

Ruth Byrd Barnett, Lenora Scott Vassar, Frances (Babka) Obuchowski Andrulewicz

Generation 6:

Amanda McClain Scott

The torch of understanding and valuing one another is handed to you, our blessed younger spirited sisters. Now, let us meet the younger sister, and there will be more about the older sisters.

1. Sophia Ellyse (Fia) Burgess is the oldest of my grandchildren. Fia is the older child of John Bradley and Debbie De Lucia Burgess. Michael Bradley Burgess is her younger brother. She was born and reared in Sacramento, California. Fia considers herself the general for her six younger girl cousins.

2. Next, Charlotte Michalis Burgess, known as either Coco or Charlie, was born in Royal Oak, Michigan; moved to New Orleans, Louisiana; and matured in Williamsburg, Virginia. Coco is the older child of Scott Vassar and Danielle De Lucia Burgess. Her younger sister is Clara Lucia Burgess.

3. The third granddaughter is Amelia Elizabeth Burgess, known affectionately as Mia. She was born in Encinitas, California; moved first to Eufaula, Alabama; and then settled in Joplin, Missouri. Amelia is the oldest child of Justin David and Sarah Elizabeth Knief Burgess. Sarah Vassar Burgess is her younger sister, and Samuel Wesley Burgess is her younger brother.

4. Mary Katherine Burgess, sweet as Cake, is the fourth granddaughter. After being born in Kansas City, Missouri, Cake and her family moved to Bentonville, Arkansas. Mary Kate is younger than her brother John (Jack) Matthew Burgess. They are the children of Stanley Matthew and Jennifer Hill Burgess.

5. Our fifth granddaughter, Clara Lucia Burgess, joined her family shortly after they moved to Williamsburg, Virginia. She is lovingly called Minnie or Chickie, which is reflective of her effervescent personality. Clara is the younger daughter of Scott Vassar and Danielle De Lucia Burgess. Her older sister is Charlotte Burgess.

6. Our sixth granddaughter is known as a Bama Girl. Sarah Vassar Burgess became known as Sadie, which she carried with her when the family moved to Joplin, Missouri. Sadie is the middle child of Justin David and Sarah Knief Burgess. Her older sister is Amelia, and her younger brother is Samuel Wesley Burgess.

7. Vanessa Ruth Elizabeth Levinson is the seventh and youngest granddaughter. A short nickname, V captures her vivaciousness and inquiring spirit. V joined her parents, Heidi Amanda Elizabeth Burgess and Matthew Levinson, while he was stationed at the naval base in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

8. Heidi Amanda Elizabeth Burgess Levinson is the only daughter of Ruth and Stan Burgess. Both Mandy and her great-grandmother Ruth Barnett had a twin brother, whose name is unknown. Mandy’s twin is Justin David Burgess. The twins, like their older Burgess siblings, were born in Springfield, Missouri. Mandy carries the heritage spirit of our sisterhood.

Now let’s turn to our spirited heritage sisters. Of course they lived in different times, places, and under different circumstances; yet they are part of you. We emerged from their loving energies and carry them forward in our hearts.

1. We begin in a war-torn western Poland where a young girl is faced with a dire situation. Being a Jewish girl, her future is bleak. We will know her as Babka, a loving Yiddish name for grandmother. It will be interesting to hear what you think about her decision. This story is told in chapter 2, The Bargain.

2. Her middle daughter, Bernice Francis Andrulewicz, carried her mother’s courageousness and high spiritedness from Pennsylvania to Michigan and then to decades of Christian service in South India. Late in her teens, she was the first in her family to anglicize her name from Andrulewicz to Andrews. Do daughters favor their mothers? What caused Babka to object to some of Bernice’s decisions? Bernice lived on two continents following a commitment to do God’s will. Her longing for a child becomes a reality in chapter 2, My God Child. Through Bernice’s and John’s letters we better understand the challenges they faced.

3. Moving to your Ajee’s (Ruth Burgess) father’s side of the family, we begin with Amanda Alameda McClain, who was a pioneer woman. Your great-great-great-grandmother was a child who was born and raised on the Nebraska prairie. Later she moved and raised her children in the Oklahoma Territory. As a lover of books, she shared loving kindness to all the children in a village called Tryon, Oklahoma. Yes, in chapter 3 you will understand why Amanda was known as The Town’s Sweetheart. She shaped our minds and hearts by acts of loving kindness and recognizing multiple realities of life. Unfortunately, samples of her writing were not preserved.

4. Mason Canning Jars takes us to chapter 4. Amanda Scott’s eldest daughter was Lenora Isabel Scott or, as many friends and family later called her lovingly, Granny Vassar. Lenora learned from her prairie mother and her Scottish relatives to be frugal. Yes, there can be several uses for canning jars. From them her table was laden, and pantry was full of colorful bountiful gifts of thoughtfulness. Or you could look at family pictures lined up around the inside of the mason jars. But these were secondary to Lenora’s reputation around town. Her righteous life brought forth prayer requests from strangers and thoughtful comments about our blessed granny. From some of her letters and a brief history, we glimpse the foundation of her son Ted’s spirituality and commitment to follow God’s will. Several of her granddaughters and great-grand daughters provided additional insights in this chapter.

5. Ruth Elizabeth Byrd never forgot the hardships she suffered as a young girl from the Old South. We read the stories about her twin brother dying as an infant in the hills of western Tennessee. Then two years later Helen Fidelia Byrd was born. Ruth’s happiness was short lived when her mother, Tenni See Byrd, died. In the interim period the girls were lovingly cared for by a mammy and later a young fourteen-year-old stepmother. Several years later her father was killed in an explosion. Fortunately, his sister Caroline Adams took the two orphan girls in to her home in Decatur, Texas. While some thought Mama Byrd Barnett was reserved, this did not detract from her loving and spiritual heart. She was stalwart in her beliefs and spiritual commitments. How did this lady stand up for women’s rights and extend her love for several generations? Mary Jo Barnett Martindale Shaw, her youngest daughter, provided additional familial insights. In chapter 5, Looking Beyond, Enabling the Future, you will admire Ruth Elizabeth’s courage.

6. Ruth Elizabeth’s second child was Freddie Estelle Barnett, who was both spiritually attuned and could be called a mystic. As a young girl, Estelle was audacious, gregarious, and enthusiastic. Yes, Estelle heard the audible voice of God when she was sixteen years of age. A divine call to India ushered her to Southwestern Bible Institute and finally to India. Throughout her life she preached about God’s love and the soon coming of Christ. Despite health and other circumstances, Estelle preached with a vigor seldom recognized in a pulpit. Chapter 6, The Spirit Descended, provides insights into her life. She showed loving kindness throughout her life both in the United States and in India. Fortunately, her 1947 travel diary and letters to her parents permit authentic insights; otherwise, these would be lost.

7. Why have people believed Thomas Aquinas’s and Aristotle’s comment that women are misbegotten males? This daughter of India did not accept such a sexist comment. Ruth Lenora Vassar, named after her two grandmothers, was the older daughter of Ted and Estelle Vassar. She was born in Poona, India, under the British Raj. Hence, she early enjoyed mother figures from two vastly different cultures. One passed on Texas English while the other tenderly spoke Marathi to Baby Ruth. This chapter emphasizes Ruth’s impressions from birth to entering her teenage years. Meet her in chapter 7, Not a Misbegotten Male. Later, Ruth persevered until she achieved the doctor of philosophy degree at the University of Missouri, USA. She chose to be thoughtful and reasoned as she attempted to integrate intergenerational values, religion, and scientific thought.

8. The last elder spirited sister is Helen Elizabeth Vassar, the fourth child of Ted and Estelle Vassar. She was born in Bowie, Texas, during World War II. Helen’s life story is not torn between two lovers. Rather, her story is torn between two loves: the countries of India and the United States. Her deep love toward Mother India continues as she works to bring authenticity and help to those in need. Helen demonstrated courage and audaciousness throughout life. Challenging the power hierarchies, she was fervent in her beliefs, stalwart in her practices, and expanded her mystic spirituality. To the vast number of underprivileged in India and the United States, Helen has shown loving kindness and cared for them beyond common expectations. Chapter 8, Bury My Heart in India, captures the intensity of her love.

Guiding Spirited Concepts

Many positive concepts could have been chosen to describe the following eight spirited sisters pairs. Conservation of space guided in selecting the following concepts: audacious, courageous, culture bearer, determined, effervescent, efficacious, empathetic, gregarious, high spirited, judicious, loving, loving kindness, mystique, reasoned, spiritual, stalwart, and thoughtful. Both members of the pair have demonstrated one or more of these spirited concepts at some time in their lives. Some illustrated these years ago while our younger girls are now giving us pride in carrying on these spirited attributes. The following list and accompanying definitions were adapted from the New Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus of the English Language (1993).

Table 1

Spirited Concepts

Pairing the Spirited Sisters

Many of the spirited concepts could be applied to each pair. These following combinations were selected because I have recognized and treasured them in each pair. The eight chapters form a dedication of remembrances. Each of the following chapters contains an introduction to each of the pair members. This is followed by comprehension questions. Then the grandmom’s story follows. Each chapter shares recipes from the grandmom’s receipt box.

No remembrance would come close to being complete without family recipes. For certain, no Vassar-Burgess-Sullivan table would be complete without Indian cuisine. Note that our sisterhood in India gave some recipes to us.

As we talk about nourishment, no one left these ladies’ kitchen tables hungry. Since I am an avid collector of heritage things, I found recipes that are attributed to each of your heritage mothers or from their daughters or daughter-in-laws. Notice as you read them or prepare them how the families differ both ethnically, availability of resources, and places of residence. As you knead Lenora’s granny rolls, remember she kneaded them too. When you feel the tingling peppers in the spicy masala, know that India’s spices enriched the palates of Bernice’s and Estelle’s families. On a cold wintry morning, try Amanda’s Southern biscuits and sausage gravy. Or you might enjoy Ruth’s fruit pizza on a balmy summer evening. Extra pickle recipes are included since homemade pickles recipes are hard to find in many locales. Some of these favorites may tickle your palate. Enjoy all these recipes since they provide glimpses into our past.

Table 2

Pairing Spirited Sisters

In chapter 10, Lest We Forget is a call to remember, to reflect, and to decide how you may be a culture bearer.

Variations in the chapter formats are to be expected. This occurred because of the amount of information available. Some families engaged in storytelling more than others. For example, we had little written information from Amanda Scott, but we had engaging folk stories. Then we had letters and other documents written by Lenora, Estelle, Bernice, Ruth, and Helen. Ruth chose to write in question-and-answer format about her early life. Direct quotes are depicted in italic script. Scattered through Lenora’s story are her granddaughters’ memories of times well spent with her. Our search for Babka continues to be somewhat of a mystery. All these spirited sisters’ stories are inspirational. Because of availability differences, adjustments in the narrative styles occur.

Check Your Sisterhood Knowledge

How many of these questions can you answer? These relate to your grandmoms.

(1) From whom did you inherit your height, weight, and wellness?

(2) Who were the women who helped form your present personality and possibly your belief system?

(3) Were their values inherited from earlier women?

(4) What stories did they tell to each other and finally to your family?

(5) How did your spirited sisters manage resources within their contexts?

(6) Who among your heritage mothers was an orphan and left a financial legacy to orphans in India?

(7) Can you identify the woman who spoke and taught her children Yiddish?

(8) Name the girl who boarded an ocean liner carrying her wedding dress to marry a month later. She had only shaken hands with her fiancé one time a year earlier.

(9) Who cooked on a woodstove and was a pioneer mother?

(10) Now, this girl at the age of sixteen heard the voice of God giving her a life’s mission.

(11) She used her baking skills to encourage people to come to her home for Bible study.

(12) Getting into a Jeep and holding her small black and tan Dachshund, she traveled into a riot on a peace-making mission in western India.

(13) Once she tried to smuggle four-leaf clover plants across a geopolitical border.

(14) As a young girl, she lived on a Mississippi River riverboat.

(15) Her son’s cross gravestone was broken because of a Ministerial Alliance’s greed.

(16) Who threatened to take a fire extinguisher and spray cremation biers?

Wouldn’t you agree that your heritage mothers were spirited? Yes, one’s heritage is about the folkways that are handed down from generation to generation whereas histories are usually about the powerful and rich. Heritage legacies are usually not written down in a formal way, but are shared by word of mouth around a family table. In former times, these folkways were shared around a communal fire. Now with the advent of technology, how might this heritage be passed forward?

Gratitude

Much heartfelt appreciation is extended to those who have nurtured me throughout the conceptualization, researching, and writing of Spirited Sisters. First, thanks to Stan Burgess, my beloved husband of over fifty years. He believed I could write heritage narratives, not just academic prose. Then orchids should be given to three of my friends. Jacqueline Schlesinger was the friend who smiled with me and encouraged me to record my grandmom’s narratives. Carol Newberg in her caring ways listened to the stories and urged me to continue. Then Mary Ann Hunt saw the value of remembering and hearing once again the voices of women who might be forgotten. She helped me to be more explicit in who belongs to whom. Her outsider voice encouraged me to include more tables. All my granddaughters have been anxiously awaiting their special dedicatory chapters. Now, my grandsons are prodding me to remember the men in our heritage. Jack (son of Matthew and Jennifer Burgess) suggested the title be Michael, Jack, and Sam. Michael is the son of Brad and Debbie Burgess. Samuel is the son of David and Sarah Burgess.

Without the preservation of heritage resources from our grandmoms, this volume could not have been written. To you we are grateful for the legacy you have given us.

To this end it was your lives, memories, and loving thoughts that have and will continue to sustain us.

CHAPTER TWO

The Bargain

COURAGE

Sophia Ellyse’s Comparison Vignette

Courage to be true to her inner beliefs or principles has been a characteristic of Sophia Ellyse. From toddlerhood, Sophia understood her perceptions with clarity. For example, one evening Brad and Debbie were encouraging Sophia to put on her blanket sleeper. The toddler refused. She wanted to wear her tennis shoes to bed. Finally, Brad coaxed Sophia to just try how the soft sleeper would feel. Looking with her large hazel eyes at her dad, Sophia nodded and put on the sleeper. Then her father tucked her in bed. But on the next morning Debbie and Brad had a surprise when they went to check on their daughter. There in her crib lay Sophia clad only in a diaper wearing her tennis shoes.

Throughout her childhood and adolescence, Sophia showed courage in taking stands that might seem unpopular. She addressed gender inequities. During many fall seasons, young Sophia challenged her father to let her play football since she deemed herself stronger than most of the boys on the team.

2.1%20Sophia%20Burgess.tif

Sophia Burgess

Introduction to Babka’s Story (Francis Obuchowski Andrulewicz)

Family traditions vary. Some families revel in storytelling and singing melodies once sung while winnowing grain, during high holidays, or while a mother rocked her newborn. But in the late nineteenth century there was unrest in western Poland. It was not uncommon for several generations of Polish families to hover around the silver and black woodstove situated in the middle of the dimly lit room as the Andrulewicz men played violins they had expertly crafted out of curly maple or Carpathian walnut wood. Their somewhat