Nixburg is finally thawing out after the frigid cold snap, until the next one comes along. I was reminded by Stan Richardson of New Site; about the 30 consecutive days of below freezing weather we had last January; so this seems to be our new trend. We forget the cold after it passes, but I don’t forget that I prefer the summer heat! The wild birds are hungry right now, so don’t forget them. I got some sad news last week that my cousin Yvonne Brett (62) had died; due to the autopsy the funeral is set for Jan. 25. Then I got some fabulous news from England, after friends of the family did research. I learned that my paternal great-grand-mother’s name was Felicia Dietz (born in Belgium Oct. 1867); and she was quite a famous Opera singer; she died in Australia, 1942. Prior to this, I only knew that she operated a large guest house mostly for Europeans while living right next door to my father’s family in Singapore.
Felicia married Charles Eugene de Broise, and apparently, my grandfather Albert Raphael was their only child. Funny thing; in 1968, when my mother was expecting my baby sister Donna Michele, the name chosen for a boy was Don Eugene. My father never mentioned his family, and when I was filling in the spaces for my Jamie’s baby book, dad wrote the names of his parents and birth year; but no further back. As you can imagine, I am elated over just knowing the names, and that there was another sibling of my fathers, a baby girl dying at 13 months from heart failure in 1927.
