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Please consider attending the 2010 Labor Day Weekend Reunion. bro. Leo
If you need more info, email me or call 617 484-4503
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About Me
- Virgilius "Leo" DiBiase
- Belmont, Massachusetts, United States
- Historian for the Masonic Home Kids Alumni Association since 1998
6 comments:
Here we are into 2011 and all my exhortations to join the blog and contribute stories have gone mostly unanswered.
However it may be that we of the older generation are lacking in computer skills so I will try once again useing my "Wired Kids" list to reenergize this Blog! The MHKAA Newsletter is now in the capable hands of Tom Yacovella, Deb Barnard and Karen Ramsey. It is gratifying to see a Kid of a Home Kid pick up the Challenge. bro. Leo
I have a new EMail.
vldibiase@verizon.net
2012 MHKAA Reunion at Round Lake.
Come and support the effort of many dedicated people that have made the Reunion possible.
bro. Leo
Call me for details 617-484-4593
2013 July! Samo Samo. Where is everybody? Sign in with your Google Account and write your heart out.
Tom Yacovella, George Sellars, Deb Barnard and Karen Ramsey are still doing yeomen duty. We all owe them not only a debt of gratitude for the newsletter but something of an apology for not contributing. Think! Write! Share! bro. Leo
P.S. Tom has a new book out;
The Wildlife Art Ventures of Tom Yacovella is a sweeping odyssey of rare pleasure that pulls me back into the sights and sounds of our childhood we shared. What differentiates his reporting both verbally and visually through his art is his attention to the exquisite detail and the nuances of movement in his encounters with the natural world.
Searching for the perfect words to describe his work and experience I must turn to the poet Mary Oliver who wrote in “Instructions for living a life”, part of her poem “Sometimes”
“Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”
You will want to be walking with him as he absorbs these delights.
VLDB
Virgilius has asked for postings, and though I am definitely not literate enough to write a book, I do feel confident enough to express my thanks to him for providing a piece of my family’s history.
Back in 2005, my son had a homework assignment to go 3 generations back in our Family tree. Now I assume for most people this would be an easy task, but both my parents had died while I was young, and with that youth came the arrogance of who cares about the past. I vaguely remembered having been told that my grandmother had died when I was 2 and my father had 2 sisters and that I was Irish.
1st --- I discovered in what few papers I had, was a Photostat of Citizenship papers for my Grandfather. Who was named Charles (Not Robert, as I had been told?) and even more shocking was that he was from Australia and immigrated in 1873.
Apparently he went to Ireland in 1881
He was a member of Lodge 194, Buckna, Ballymena, Co. Antrim. He got his Entered Apprentice Degree on 21st March 1881, his Fellow Craft Degree on 18th April 1881 and his Master Mason Degree on 16th May 1881.
He married in 1885 in Ireland and returned to the United States in 1887
His first wife died in 1895
My Grandfather had 3 sons from that marriage, and did not marry my grandmother (1901) until after they had already had 2 daughters.
Charles Alexander McNeill died in 1907 (4 Sons, 3 Daughters).
In 1907 My Grandmother, being unable to take care of her children, committed my father and his 3 sisters to the Masonic home in Utica, New York.
In the 1910 they were all recorded in the Census
In 1912 Annie my father’s youngest sister died of Tubercular Meningitis
In 1914 My father and his 2 sisters were retrieved from the Masonic Home by my Grandmother who had remarried.
If not Virgilius and the information he had provided me, this piece of family history would not have been known to me
I GOT THIS TODAY ,8/17/2013. I'm passing it on as I received it.
Hi Tom. I hope you are having a good summer and that your family is well. Karen
and I are both fine. I have a new job as Internet manager at Nissan of Melbourne
and am enjoying it.
Liz Searing, Carl's wife, passed away last Saturday from a stroke and then heart
attack. She had recently lost both legs to poor circulation. Ironic as this
happened to young Carl as you know.
There is a memorial service at the Smith Funeral Chapel this Friday, Aug 9th in
Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Don't know the time.
Would you kindly let the home kids know? Please let me know if there is someone
I can reach out to or how I can assist you.
Thanks Tom. Enjoy the rest of the summer. Miss you.
Hugs,
Deb Barnard
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