Key West 1: The People

Brigitte, the Birthday Child

Monique

John

Barbara and Michelle

Hillery

Max

Stella

Malcolm

Henry

Arsen, your reporter here

We harvested, as a family 1,143 photographs in our trip to the Florida Keys to commemorte Brigitte's 80th birthday. Such riches, while welcome, create some problems too--of selection and arrangement. I've decided to solve by producing multiple posts. This, the first, will introduce the cast--at least the major characters. In future will come posts titled Our Place, The Scenery, More People, and Our Doings. That last may have to be subdivided in turn. For now, here is a little glimpse of the actors, and some of the things we did...

For relatives a little too distant to keep up, Hillery belongs to Barbara (and, at her age, to herself!!!). Max, Stella, Henry, and Malcolm belong to Michelle. You behold three generations here although a fourth one is already present: Hillery could not bring her children, Kyle and Kobe, but they were with us in spirit. Arsen, of course, belongs to Brigitte.

For the record, the vacation extended from February 18 through March 3 of this year.

Hello, Hohensteins!

Here we present at least an introductory collage of the Hohenstein branch of the Ghulf clan: Barb, Hillery, and Hillery's own Kyle and Kobe. Introductory? Yes. These pictures, from Facebook, are a little dated and not very well matched, but we've had some technical problems exchanging photos with Babs, what with our Kodak empire not quite communicating with hers. But rather than waiting any longer for new pics to mature--especially in light of promising new careers demanding copious amounts of time from three of the four Hohensteins--we thought it best to go forward now. Babs has been busy returning to her old avocation in eldercare, this time working for A Place for Mom. Hillery is at the end of her training in the medical field, in nursing assistance. And Kyle is launched on a career in Arsen's favorite military service, the United States Coast Guard. Only Kobe has the luxury, still, of being just a child. Good for you, Kobe! It's the best time of life!

Barbara--who, for Brigitte and me--will forever remain “Babs,” a German shortening of all Barabaras over there and thus deeply embedded in us--is our oldest daughter and, hence, presides over a line in which we are delighted to see three generations into the future: our great grand children. It makes you dizzy to think that the oldest, of two mind you, little Kyle, is is now in uniform. How time doth pass. How they shoot up...