Please tell us all what brings you joy at this stage of your life despite any challenges you may now face.
Is it a trip you took?
A new skill you’re working on or an old one revived?
A new member of your family?
A walk through your garden? Or a walk through a park?
Or perhaps it’s a performance you attended — or were in?
Or a book you read?
Send a photo or two as well as a short explanation of what you are/were doing to our Website Chair. Please send only as .jpg or .png
All of us would love to hear about and see your current life. And then think about submitting another item with photos in a month or two! And if you have a website, be sure to include the URL link.
Dancing Aunties illustration courtesy of the very talented Inge Look. You can see more of her work on her website.
June 2023
From Gloria Fraser:
She wrote: “This is the first time we traveled without camera gear. Jerry promised I could use his iphone 14 and it is a joy to have such a fab lightweight, low light camera! Jerry took the people photos. I did the library shots.”
From Carol Goodfriend:
She wrote: “I’ve always been aware of all the Olmsted landscaping decisions & plantings at Smith & have enjoyed watching growth – after all, it’s been growth since 1959! I’m also glad the library renovation incorporated the surrounding descending hill to create a special outdoor sitting/viewing area. It is a resounding success in my view. And when taking a break from practicing the piano, I would open the window and listen to the water plunging over the dam. Smith has many special spots for discovering inspiration, creativity, as well as solitude. We have been so very fortunate to return & find the special delights of Smith have not changed.”
Smith Botanical garden
Smith: Wright bldg & library amphitheater
May 2023
From Carol Wilson Lightwood:
“I love taking photos for my current blog, I Saw It In Tucson. It’s been fun developing our 60th Reunion website, too. I’m definitely not a “selfie person”, but in these photos I captured my reflected image while taking pictures of shops on the ground level of a newish apartment complex near downtown Tucson.”
From Toni Trobe Kestenbaum:
“What brings me joy? I have to admit that I am joyful, by nature. I seem to have inherited a joy gene. (This is not always a good thing.)
I have also been incredibly fortunate. Reasons?
1. My husband, Herb, to whom I have been married for 58 years
2. Our 2 children and 4 grandchildren,
3. Our wonderful CCRC retirement community, in which both of us are very actively engaged,
4. Music, especially playing violin in string quartets and other chamber groups, AND…
5. Learning, learning… especially regarding technology and long-term-care community management.
Like most of us, my life has not been without serious challenges. But, on the whole, I have a great deal to be grateful for.”
From Barbara Alcorn
“My husband Jim Alcorn and I have a very active life – a blended family, 16 grandchildren, and now we are great grandparents. Love of travel has never stopped, and the things that keeps us most busy _ Jim restores MGA motorcars (who could afford one when we were in college), and I am an Architectural Tour Guide at Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute, where people from all over the world come to see this amazing complex of buildings.”
April 2023
From Barbara Alcorn and Mini-reunioneers from Emerson:
“At the end of August, seven of us from Emerson House met on a Pandemic delayed mini reunion in Boston. We try to do this every year in a new location – great fun, lots to catch up on, and much joy! The tree was a glass Chuhuly tree in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. All of us are pictured who attended, except the last night when Mary Lloyd Smith was able to join us.”
March 2023
From Jacqui Bishop
Jacqui recommends two of her streaming favorites:
“The Octopus Teacher is a spectacularly beautiful heart opening documentary on Netflix that keeps coming to mind. In fact, I signed up just so I could watch it. And Fabulous Fungi is also unforgetable, also on Netflix.”
From Abigail Bayles Wiebenson
“There are many avenues for joy in my life including
-having a welcoming house for family, friends, and neighbors to share afternoon tea or a meal;
– creating fruitful conversations with my leadership coaching clients;
– singing in Encore Chorale, with grateful thanks to Smith for giving me solid grounding in choral singing;
– enjoying a LAT (Living Apart Together) relationship for many years with Stephen whom I first met when we sang together in the Smith-Amherst Chamber Singers, following my husband’s sudden death in 2003.”
“My three hilarious, thoughtful and caring sons, John, Derek and Sam, who have brought me eight delightful grandchildren and totally enjoyable and admirable daughters-in-law.” And in center, Abby and Stephen singing.
February 2023
From Helen Edelstein Freedman
“I retired from the Bench at the end of 2014 and have been doing commercial arbitrations and mediations ever since. However, my two daughters (not here) and six grandchildren (featured here) bring me the most joy. Two are in college, one is in grad school and three are in high school, The pandemic made my hair go natural. It’s much easier!”
From Barbara Willow Drinkwater
“What brings me joy is being close to family, here with my sister, Patricia Taylor, ’65, and my stateside grandchildren, Caitlyn and Adam both college graduates in the work world! Looking forward to Reunion!”
January 2023
From Elizabeth Betsy Robbins Rosenthal
“A visit from my granddaughter, Eva, brings me joy”.
From Julie Conger:
“I am keeping the dark brown girl with white paws and white blaze on her chest as a breeding girl – little Miss Belle is in my right arm.” These Portuguese Water dog puppies are 7 weeks old.
From the Reunion Team:
A sneak preview of the signs for the parade:
No longer looking
Like Helen of Troy
What do we care?
We’re still feeling JOY!
I’ll always be happy
And filled with JOY
Since being a Smithie
Is the real McCoy!
A pronoun surrender
He, she, girl, or boy
No matter the gender
Smithies give us JOY
November 2022
From Margo Breck Euler:
“LOVE the theme—for the first time I’m actually thinking seriously of attending! Besides conducting the Broad Cove Chorale my biggest joy is kayaking with my singing friends (all of whom I converted to paddling!) We go out on ponds, rivers and salt marshes on the South Shore of Boston every nice day from May thru (maybe) early December; we sing in 3 or 4 parts. My kayak lives in my Prius for these 7 months. In last photo: grandson Zac, now 12, joins us when he’s not playing basketball or in school!”
From Peggy Robbins Wacks:
“Here are photos of me (white hair, white blouse) with two other Colonial Dancers of the Lexington Historical Dancers, and an attendee at the event, Tavern Night where we performed last summer in Lexington, MA.”
She goes on to add: “Me and my husband, Steve Wightman with his Superseawind amphibious turbine aircraft, and, in the third photo, the two of us at the Grand Canyon last month. These and our two grandsons, 15 and 17 bring us joy! PS I won’t be 80 until Feb.2023.”
From Julie Conger:
Seven new Portuguese Water dogs joined the Conger household in late November. They are 3 days old in this photo.
October 2022
From Toni Krissel:
“My husband and I both had Covid last August but are fully recovered. Our 55-year-old son is getting married for the second time and they plan to have a baby. Lifting the baby will be a challenge. The picture is of our daughter’s two amazing kids. Will is a sophomore at Yale and Lizey is at Hotchkiss, applying to Yale for early admission. Our foster son has moved to Nevada with his wife and two daughters. I am auditing history of art classes and walking a lot. Had a wonderful lunch with Mollie Ravenel Fair today. Hope to make it to reunion!!!”
September 2022
From Joan Denny:
“I try really hard to go to bed each night and conjure up the day to find at least ONE thing that “went right” and brought a smile or a guffaw …and there always is at least one happy, wonderful thing 🙂
My 3 daughters and my 5 grands give me joy…and so does my half-feral cat (usually!!). I love sitting outside at night in my backyard to wait for the squirrels to dash through my Kousa trees eating all the red berries, the bunnies that “mow” my grass, and the deer who wander in over and around the mandated fencing to eat my deer-resistant flowers (!!!) and make their way around nibbling on the hedge——and if I’m lucky, they all come around at once 🙂 AND …I live right smack in the middle of East Hampton Village!!!! You just can’t get any better than that :)”
August 2022
From Jane Allison Morris:
Jane, her husband Tom, and granddaughter Austen traveled to London in June where, among other things, they tried on hats at a 300 year old hat store. (Editor: The pink one looks like one that royals might wear.)
From Caroline Meline:
“This is me with my very tall grandson, Nate Meline, almost 19. We think he’s stopped growing but not absolutely sure. Meanwhile, I am shrinking! Right now I am 5’2″ and Nate is 6’5″. Photo taken at the Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia in June.”
July 2022
From Caroline Meline:
Summer in Pennsylvania means working in her beautiful garden.
From Nancy Maas:
“Cedars here along the Lake Michigan shore/woods grow to extravagant heights and are full of curly branches that I love. We’ve got some on our property and the woods next door that I’ve painted so many times, often on-site.
The group also includes small watercolors that “sell” here of Lake vistas and some of the historic buildings; plus small abstracts of “water”, another obsession of mine. Also, a watercolor of an Ukrainian mom (so young!) done for a charity event upcoming in TX.”
Nancy’s website: https://nmaas.com/
From Stephanie Sandell:
“Hope you’re all as well as can be expected. I returned a week ago from Vancouver, where I visited son Adam, who works as a doctor in a First Nation community on the British Columbian coast. He flies up and stays for two weeks then flies back to Vancouver for two weeks. My daughter Alex started a business at the beginning of lockdown supporting young people with autism, training companies who are willing to hire people with autism – for which she has just won a Best New Business award. Busy here not keeping on top of the garden, reading a lot, cooking when I have people here – frequent [often self-invited!] houseguests – and attending as many early-music concerts as possible. Went to Florence in May to see a Donatello exhibition, and we had a lovely Pisarro exhibition here at the Ashmolean in Oxford which has only just closed. I’m arthritic and wobbly but still upright and above ground.”
From Carole Whitehill:
The Whitehill family has adopted one of Julie Conger’s adorable Portuguese Water Dogs. Her name is Mollie.
From Leslie Freudenheim – at the Artic Circle!
“I’m traveling with Tom (57 years of marriage). Glad to be in Norway instead of the USA right now. From the ship we see a few houses seemingly isolated but I presume they make a living fishing & many have homeschooled kids we’re told.
We spent 3 weeks in London & attended Nina’s Bat Mitzvah celebrations. End of August we take another granddaughter to Berlin. We’re so blessed.
I’m enjoying a new Keats biography & just finished Great Circle & Agatha Christie’s Murder of Roger Ackroyd, both excellent.
I’m hoping to find volunteers to address postcards supporting Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada for re-election. My friend Amanda designed the postcards. If you’re interested in addressing postcards ( the message is printed already on the card) let me know to leslie@freudenheim.com
If you’re involved in any attempts to stop climate change & need help let me know.
Crossing Artic Circle in 15 minutes.”
Photos: Norwegian village along the ocean; sunset seen from the boat near midnight, Stave church in Oslo.
Also from Leslie Freudenheim:
Her short illustrated biography of Frank Lloyd Wright is now available on Kindle Unlimited! Hardcover, too, of course.
June 2022
From Julie Conger:
“My Portuguese Water Dogs, and their puppies, bring me enormous joy! Here are pictures of me with Manly (number One PWD in the USA in 2017) (on our lawn) and with his son Bernie (number One PWD Allbreed in the USA in 2019) (on sofa) after he won Best of Breed at Westminster.”
Julie with Manly, her Portuguese Water Dog
Julie sharing the sofa with Manly and Bernie her Portuguese Water Dogs.
And here is the label for the syrah wine from Julie’s vineyard. It’s “Chateau waterdog” in French!
From Carole Whitehill with her family on the beach in Cayucos, CA:
And Carole with friends hiking in Portugal:
From Carol Lightwood: Reading spy novels in bed on a Kindle during Covid:
Also this from Carol: “Just before the Covid outbreak I spent 4 months traveling from Los Angeles to New Orleans and, three months later, ended up moving to Tucson. My website about Tucson — mostly the arts and the unexpected in Tucson–is I Saw It In Tucson.”
“I loved riding around on the trollies in New Orleans. On the St. Charles trolley one day this little girl proudly told me she had just graduated from Kindergarten. A great beginning for an educated woman. And I love all the angles in this image.”
See photos of the Zoom Meetings for houses here.
And be sure to send us photos of what brings joy into your life now.