THE SONGS OF A NIGHTINGAIL

  The four Bradley siblings – L-R: Yours truly, middle sis, brother, & youngest sis in 1960. My brother’s high school graduation portrait 1961 1962 Easter with our Dad.  Dad, me, and my brother in back; sisters in front. 1963 Easter with me, my sisters, and Mom & Dad.  Bro’ was taking the picture. My brother, yours truly, and my sisters. Easter 1965. My youngest sister’s high school graduation portrait 1966. Middle Sis’s college portrait 1966-67. Sisters-three with Dad, 1967 My engagement portrait, 1968 The portrait I wanted to use, but I was outvoted. :-> La Nightingail P.S. The Easter tradition continued in the ‘70s with my own family.  This was Easter, 1977 with son Ross, and daughters Stephanie and Suzanne.  The girls’ dresses were double-duty.  They were short-skirted dresses over a long skirt.  My cousin made the blue dress for her daughter which was passed on to me for my daughters, and I made the pink one. Our family sibling ‘p...

  This is, perhaps, a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it’s true all the same.   Because a professional tracing of my father’s ancestry was done back to William the Conqueror, I was able to take it back even further.   So keeping in mind the numbers are as near as I can figure, and the ‘likenesses’ were found online, here are:  “My Other Great Grandfathers” My 43xs great grandfather, Charlemagne, King of the Franks 768-814 & Holy Roman Emperor 875-877 My 41xs great grandfather, Alfred the Great King of Wessex 871-899 My 39xs great grandfather, Ragnar Sigardsson Lodbrok, King of Denmark. (History is a little sketchy on his actually ever having been king?) Was my 39xs great grandfather, Ragnar Lodbrok, as good-looking as Trevor Fimmel who played Ragnar on the TV series?  It would be fun to think so? My 39xs great grandfather, Kenneth mac Alpin, First King of Scotland 843-858 My 39xs great grandfather, Robert I, King of the Francias 922-923 My 38xs great grandfathe...

  My paternal grandma & granddad, Harriet ‘Hattie’ Bell Smedley Bradley, and Frank Herbert Bradley – newly married in 1906.  He rented a room in the home where she and her mother lived and that's how & where they met.  Frank was the youngest of 12 children and came to America with his mother and 5 older sisters when he was 5 years old. My Grandma and Granddad Bradley in later years – maybe the 1920s or '30s. My Dad and Mom, Herbert Kinsey Bradley and Lillian Adelle Whitney on a beach somewhere in 1937-38.   Dad & Mom on their wedding day, June 17, 1939. Mom and Dad in 1975.  I love this picture because of the way he’s looking at her. My husband, Kit, and me on the beach at D.L. Bliss State Park, Lake Tahoe in 1957 when we were 17. And on our wedding day 11 years later.   And the following year we added another member to our family – our son. (We already had the dog.  He came with the husband.   :-> La Nightingail   P.S. L...

  My paternal grandmother, Harriet ‘Hattie’ Bell Smedley, age 16   Harriet ‘Hattie’ Bell Smedley Bradley in 1952 at age 73 with the same laughing eyes she had when she was a teenager. J My grandfather, Frank Herbert Bradley in 1902 at age 24.  He and ‘Hattie’ were married in 1906. Frank Herbert Bradley at a later age.  I never really knew my Granddad Bradley.  He died when I was only 6 years old and had been ill for a while before that so I don’t really remember him though I have photographs of me with him when I was a toddler and on my third birthday.  I’ve always thought he looked rather dashing in this picture. My Granddad Bradley holding me when I was a toddler surrounded by my Aunt Ruth, my Dad & Mom, Grandma Bradley, and Aunt Frances. My maternal grandmother, Bertha Louise Parton Whitney.  I don’t know when this portrait of her was taken, but she was known to me and my siblings as “Grandma Louise”. My Grandma Louise loved pretty dresses....