TRAVELS (and more) WITH CECILIA BRAINARD: SOME OLD BRAINARD PICTURES

Thursday, August 23, 2007

SOME OLD BRAINARD PICTURES

Husband Lauren was given a bunch of old pictures and I've posted some of them. I never met Grandpa Mac (McKay), the father of Lauren's Mom. What I know about him was that he had a band and played several musical instruments. The musical gene carried through to Lauren's mother (Merwyn) who sings beautifully. The baby below is the baby picture of General Robert Francis Brainard, Lauren's father - interesting isn't it? - a general's baby picture. He was the only baby in his generation so he not only had doting parents (George Francis Brainard and Ella May Fuller) but aunts (Ines and Mary) and uncle (Jerry). Except for Merwyn, they're all gone. I knew the General, Grandma Dina (Ella May), Aunt Mary, Uncle Jerry and wife Tillie Robson - but didn't know Ines nor Grandpa Mac.

Time moves on - and as full as our lives seem to be, we're sometimes reduced to black and white pictures and only a handful of people will have some memories of us.

Here are some old photos of Lauren and his family!

Lauren and Larrie Brainard with Grandpa McKay

Robert Francis Brainard, as baby

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's official website is ceciliabrainarddotcom. She is the award-winning author and editor of 22 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Selected Stories, Vigan and Other Stories, and more. She edited Growing Up Filipino 1, 2, & 3, Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and other books.. Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized. Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She has served in the Board of literary arts groups such as PEN, PAWWA (Pacific Asian American Writers West), among others.