Back to the Papal Gardens

Vatican City, June 1989. The gardens feature several interesting buildings.

Papal-Gardens Reunion

Vatican City, June 1989. It's a place to collect your thoughts.

Related by Marriage: Solemn

Nativity BVM Church, Marquette Park, Chicago, Illinois, January 11, 1958. Guests await the beginning of the wedding ceremony.

Christening

Sacred Heart Church, Melrose Park, Illinois, December 1958. My Godmother's husband must have taken this snapshot; recall Parents and Grandparents do not, in our culture, attend baptisms.

Related by Marriage: Home Wake

Bridgeport, Chicago, Illinois, about 1939. We don't know who died, but Mr. Irene's family saved this image of the entry to a home wake.

A Favorite Pastor

Suburban Chicago, about 1967. He always carried a lit cigar, and the children loved him.

Related by Marriage: Attention

Nativity BVM Church, Marquette Park, Chicago, Illinois, January 11, 1958. The honor guard at the wedding of Mr. Irene's Parents listen to the ceremony.

Shrove Tuesday

Here are some Lithuanian customs for the day. (Here's a photo from a 1923 Shrove Tuesday. And here's a recipe for those traditional pancakes.)

ADDED: Here's our recipe for "Pončkai." You probably think of them as "Paczki."

Religion Class

River Forest, Illinois, January 13, 1976. Religion classes were mandatory at my high school. Few of us took the classes seriously, and we usually tried to find a course that wasn't very "religiony." This photo is from one of those classes, Marriage Class.

The requirement that students wear uniforms did not mute self-expression.

Blue Reunion

Near Sauk City, Wisconsin, January 1990. We're getting some snow.

The Life Box (Part 27)

Suburban Chicago, December 1963. The grade school encouraged us to craft greetings with religious themes.

Related by Marriage: Sadness

Near Panevėžys, Lithuania, July 1993. Mr. Irene's Dad joins the family of his younger brother, Stacey, at the cemetery.

Camp Memento

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Schweinfurt, Germany, 1945 to 1949. This is a "holy card" Dad carried throughout the postwar years. The text printed on the back is not a prayer; it's the lyrics to the Lithuanian Anthem.

Related by Marriage: Sunday Gathering

Marquette Park, Chicago, Illinois, 1959. Mr. Irene's Dad celebrates Mr. Irene's christening day. The group sits in the kitchen of Anna and Stanley's home. The back of Anna's head—covered in a hair net—faces the camera lens.

Do you recognize the 7Up bottle partially visible in the lower right corner?

Chilly Season

Unknown location, Germany, Autumn 1944. Roadside shrines are common in Europe.

Subject Matter

Raganų Kalnas (the "Hill of Witches"), Juodkrantė, Lithuania, August 2011. Filmmaker Frank Barn has made the "Hill of Witches" the subject of an upcoming documentary.

Thanks to my Toronto Cousin for making this photo available to us.

The View from the Other Side

Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, Rome, Italy, October 1983. My peculiar tour of Rome begins with a visit to a thirteenth-century cloister.

Waiting for the Pope

Chicago, Illinois, October 5, 1979. Mr. Irene and his friends await the arrival of Pope John Paul II.

Related by Marriage: We visit.

Los Angeles, California, October 1990. After Mr. Irene and I finished our San Diego obligations, we drove up to visit the family of Mr. Irene's paternal Uncle Ignas.

"I thought, is that a way to make money? ... Maybe I could fly around. I could be the flying nun."

Los Angeles Catholic sisters don't think Katy Perry is an appropriate buyer for their former home, the Immaculate Heart of Mary convent.