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FROM SÃO ROQUE (São Miguel) TO SAINT LOUIS (Missouri)

July 20, 2001 / With Katherine and nine grandchildren at St. Louis. The 10th was on the way.

January, 1946 / With my mother in São Miguel, Azores.

In spite of the nostalgic feelings for the Azores, and the need to hear the sea's roar, Missouri is home...

THE SEA REPLACED BY SNOW...

1969 - Ponta Delgada - Avenida Marginal - Postcard by Foto Nóbrega....

1998 - Avenida Marginal. How can I now call Ponta Delgada home, except for its people? The Avenida now continues beyond the Calheta, all the way to the Estrada Nova da Ribeira Grande. Now one no longer walks the narrow sidewalks of Rua dos Mercadores... I didn't the last time I was there. But, then, my subdivision in Olivette (St. Louis County, Missouri) does not even have sidewalks...

March 20, 2002: Not one of the people shown on the side photos is presently living in the Azores. They are either: 1. Dead. Or 2. Living in Québec, Canada, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Missouri .

In many ways one could recite the history of the Azores by looking at all the people on the photo. Most have already died. Others who are alive are dispersed from Canada to the United States.  Even the house behind them no longer exists. It has been knocked down by the City of Ponta Delgada as part of its road-widening program. My parents and I owned it for many years, although we never lived in it. One could say that World War II was the leading cause for the house having been built. Prior to that war, a small hot house sat on its land. It was from there that my paternal grandparents, and then my parents, would get the small infant pineapple plants that would be transplanted for  final cultivation in the  larger hothouses behind our regular residence. When the war came and we could no longer export the fruit, our family went broke. Everything had to be sold to pay the family debts, and, in the process, my parents bought that last remaining piece of land from the estate. It was their hope that someday they'd use it and build a house on it. They did and, although we never lived in it, I paid its last mortgage bills from whatever I made working after school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. My mother's sister, Maria da Luz, and her family lived there for many years until, little-by-little, they all started to emigrate. Even my maternal grandfather lived in it for a time. I'll never know how they managed it, for the house was as small a place as one can imagine. There's even a story about an item - a talhão - which appears next to the house on the upper photo. I once wrote an article about it, CONFISSÃO AO PADRE MONTEIRO, which someday I shall translate. Times were hard on those days and even a large clay pot could get families fighting - unless the local priest could make them see the light... CLICK

WHO KNOWS WHERE THE TRIP WILL LEAD US...? IN THE PROCESS OF GETTING TO THAT FINAL DESTINATION, HOWEVER, THERE WERE MANY  STOPS THAT HAD NEVER COME TO MIND AS THE HORSE-DRAWN CARRIAGE BROUGHT ME AND MY MOTHER TO THE CITY'S DEPARTURE POINT. WE KNEW THAT WE'D NEVER PROBABLY SEE MANY OF THOSE WE LEFT BEHIND AGAIN. AS IT EVENTUALLY TURNED OUT, WE WERE WRONG.. ON THE OTHER HAND, WE EVENTUALLY HELPED TO CREATE AND NOURISH SOME OF THOSE BELOW WHO CONTINUE TO BRING US UNTOLD HAPPINESS. ALTHOUGH MY MOTHER DIED IN 1996, SHE DID GET TO MEET NINE GREAT- GRANDCHILDREN, ALL PRODUCTS OF THE NEW LAND...... The 10th grandchildchild, Jackson Samuel McKay Chauvin, was born in Missouri on May 10, 2002.

But, as in most of life's destinations, there were a few stops to smell the roses along the way... or planting a maple sapling and waiting for it to become a beautiful tree,

OR EVEN ANOTHER CITY WITH ANOTHER  CELEBRATED RIVER - DIE MOLDAU

WELCOME PRESIDENT BUSH -  Laura H. Ponte  Chauvin, the granddaughter of an Azorean woman who barely knew how to read, escorts former President, George H. W. Bush, during his visit to Washington University in St. Louis.

There were additional stops along the way, though, many of which you will see by CLICKING... AND CLICKING..., such as: CLICK">CLICK

In spite of his loss, John Ashcroft did not have great cause for grief. The President of the United States, G. W. Bush, nominated him as his administration's U. S. Attorney General. In the photo, Ashcroft (middle) poses with two of his subordinates U. S. Assistant Attorneys, one of whom (wearing blue shirt) is McKay Chauvin, my son-in-law. McKay is married to my youngest daughter, Laura. He also comes from a long line of lawyers. His father, Stan Chauvin, is a former president of the American Bar Association. one of his great grandfathers was Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.CLICK

Little did I know when I married that attractive and slender Irish-American redhead from Boston that someday she'd be the mother of a young woman escorting a former President of the United States, George H. W. Bush, at a Washington University event, or that Katherine, even after we had both retired, would receive a photo of the Governor of Missouri wishing her and her family well at Christmas time. Life is interesting - and surprising...CLICK