We drove to Hadley, Mass. on Saturday at the peak of fall foliage in New England. It was a lovely drive to Hadley, a small town just south of Amherst, where the University of Massachusetts is located. (Boo had a lovely dog sitter, a student at UMass, come to our hotel to be with him while we were at the wedding). Carly Vivier, one of my 3rd cousins, was marrying Nick Rice. They both live in Nashville but were getting married here, close to where most of their family resides. It was a wonderful time for me to reconnect with my cousins and meet the new generation of Viviers.
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My second cousin, Mike, and his daughter, Carly.
Mike is the eldest of the 6 Vivier kids. |
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| Carly and Nick seal the deal! |
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| Mike's wife, Sue, looking particularly beautiful! |
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Sarah Hurley, a 3rd cousin,
oldest daughter of Helen |
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| The happy couple |
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| Sarah and Matt, Mike's eldest (Carly's brother) |
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| Mike and Sue |
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| My first cousin, Judy Pierce- a real pistol |
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Judy and some of her girls: Helen and her daughter, Melissa (just finished 4 yrs.
in the Air Force-Security) are on either side of Judy.
Anne Morrison (from Keller, Texas) and her daughter, Jesse,
on the other side of Helen. |
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Fran Vivier, Judy's ex and father of the
six kids |
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Judy-My Dad used to call her Poodle
(can you see why?) |
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| Luigi, Judy's half brother, and his wife, Elaine |
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| Andy Vivier(3rd eldest of the 6) and his wife Teddy |
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| Anne, 2nd youngest of the six, and her daughter |
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| Jimmy, the baby of the 2nd cousins |
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This is Judy and I in the Photo Booth at
the wedding. Can you believe we are a
couple of 70 and 80 year olds?!!!?! |
I couldn't possibly be in New England and not make a visit to my old stomping grounds: Spencer, MA. I was born in Worcester but lived in Spencer until I was 5 years old. All my relatives are from Spencer. You would hardly know that in the late 1700s it was a major stage stop on the Boston-New York Post Rd. It was a booming shoe and wire manufacturing town until the second world war. Today, it is best known as the home of St. Joseph's Abbey, a Trappist Monastary that is right down the street from Diddy's farm and the cemetery.
Our first stop was Pine Grove Cemetery. It always makes me feel comforted to come here. My parents, my grandparents and many old friends and family are buried here. It was a rainy, cloudy day but it looked so lovely with all the falling leaves.
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| Another beautiful drive-if only the sun had been out |
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| Lake Lashaway, where our family spent many summers. |
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| Lake Lashaway-still beautiful, even in this lousy weather! |
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| Pine Grove Cemetery, Spencer, MA |
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This is the grave where my Dad's parents and sister and
my Mom and Dad are. I love that they are all together! |
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| I was so happy to see that my heart shaped rocks were still there on the grave. |
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Nanna and Diddy, my mother's parents, are buried here,
just a stone's throw from our other family grave site. |
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We need to plant some new things here in the spring and probably get
some of the lichen removed so you can read the names and dates. My a
long time has gone by!! |
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On the right is where my grandfather, Diddy (Gibson) had his dairy farm.
The barn, the milk house and the house all burned down many years ago.
It is always so sad to see so much of that history gone. There are now houses
where pastures used to be. On the right, up the road a bit, is the small house
where Nanna and Diddy moved later in life. |
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This is the house where my Dad's parents lived upstairs. Nanna
and Grampa helped to raise Judy here, after Helen, my Dad's
sister, died of tuberculosis. |
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This is the house on Greenville St. where I lived from the time of my birth
until we moved to Pennsylvania. It was my parents' first house,
which they bought for $5,000! I would have loved to knock on the
door, but we needed to get back to Marblehead, pack up and get ready
to fly out of Boston the next day.
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We are back in Colorado for about 6 weeks, before leaving for winter in Mexico.
