Terry Newirth Hirshorn sends corrections to some 40th reunion information I included last time. Our prize was for the biggest class gift to the annual fund, not the largest donated total. (The Class of 1957 had over 80% participation and won the percentage of participation prize. They also raised more money than we did, but most of their gift was designated for endowment.) In addition to Terry and Lynnette Palmer Perkins, the reunion gift committee included Alma Lee Carpenter, Janet Ohle Ghigo, Peggy Heston Greenwood, Emily Singer Pressman, Nancy Gellman, and Ann Stehney. Many thanks for all their hard work–and my apologies for not mentioning everyone earlier.
By the time these notes are posted, Terry will likely have a new right hip. “The current one allows me to swim and bike, but not really walk very far–no more than a block or two without pain,” she writes, “So I am looking forward to the new one. Living in center city means that walking is a big part of life. Given the number of people I know with new hips, I’m guessing at least several of our classmates have already gotten new joints as well. I will be happy to compare notes.”
In August of last year, Susan Ames flew her plane from her home in Oxford, UK, to Limoges, Agen, Pau, and Saint-Brieuc, France, on four different weekends. In September, she flew to Besançon, an ancient French city that is still extensively fortified. In October, Susan attended a meeting of the Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana) in Chia, Sardinia, to celebrate the 5th anniversary of a gamma ray satellite that is still transmitting data.
Caroline Foster Caubet’s daughter Anne Sophie, whom some of you met at reunion, was married in October to her sweetheart of 8 years. The wedding took place in the 10th-century Benedictine Abbey of Fleury, in St. Benoît-sur-Loire in the Loire Valley. Another daughter, Marion, thoroughly enjoyed her Writing for College, Urban Studies, summer program at Bryn Mawr. She was so impressed with our reunion booklet that she initiated a similar project with her summer companions (results of which might be posted on the College Web site). Victoria, Caroline’s youngest, will be attending Writing for College next summer. “In February we are off to Malaysia to visit our son Thomas who has been a permanent Asian resident for 6 years moving from Taipei to Beijing to Singapore to Kuala Lumpur and back to Singapore. In March I will be a grandmother for the first time. I am looking forward to this new page in life and a new experience. Hope we all keep on sharing news.”
Mary Farrell is planning a trip to Toulouse this summer for a workshop for French teachers, followed by excursions to la Dordogne, Paris and Normandy. “My son Tim leaves this weekend to help film a documentary in Berlin and Tokyo, gainfully employed at least for 3 weeks! (He always works, but it’s not always gainful.) I wish everyone a happy New Year and improvements all around.”
Alma Lee Carpenter has good news. “I graduated from Cortiva Muscular Therapy Institute on February 3rd! After 900 hours of training including 150+ practice hours in the student clinic dealing with a variety of clients, I feel as if I have moved from my head through my heart to my hands. And I think I’d like to stay here for awhile.”
“For years, or probably decades,” writes Liz Freedman Russell, “I both welcomed and dreaded the arrival of the Alumnae Bulletin, with those class notes at the end. Everyone’s amazing accomplishments–fellowships and PhDs and stellar jobs and superstar children and foreign travel. And what did I have to show for my years since graduation???”
“The wonderful thing about our 40th reunion last year was the release from that feeling of Class Notes Inadequacy. None of those overachiever bragging rights mattered a bit. What overtook everyone, it seemed to me, was the joy of reconnecting with old friends, catching up on each other’s lives, talking about the things that matter most to us at this stage of the game–our families, our reflections on the sometimes unexpected paths we’ve taken since leaving Bryn Mawr, our hopes and plans for the future.”
“I was struck by what a geographically small world we had lived in for four years and how intensely focused on our studies we had been. Despite the small size of our class, I didn’t know everyone. And yet returning to the campus, there were so many, many people who’d shared the same formative experiences with me and who now were kindred spirits, so easy to talk to. As Mawters, we’ve spent the last 40 years as strivers; how nice to return, if only for a weekend, to the place where and people with whom we’d had time to think and talk about what’s important in life.”
To recapture some of last summer’s reunion, check out our class’s secure web pages at https://athenasweb.brynmawr.edu/brynmawr/auth/login for photos and an online version of the reunion booklet. You will need to set up a user name and password if you have not already done so.
To you all I send my hopes for a year of productive reflection and change.
Taffy
’67 Class Editor
Taffy Brecht Everts
803 Rebecca Drive
Boulder Creek, CA 95006
831-338-4899
taffy@cruzio.com