Peter & Rebecca Thomason's Family Site

Good-bye GiGi Anne

2008-07-14T06:04:00.000-07:00

GrandaMa Anne fell asleep in the Lord last night about 6:00 PM after coming out of surgery. All ten of her children and many of her grandchildren were with her. We will publish more about Anne over the next few weeks leading up to her funeral service.

As would be expected of such a generous person, she donated her organs to the University of Maryland Medical Center so we won't get her body back for cremation for a few weeks. When we do we will have a funeral liturgy for her at the parish church of the Charlestown Retirement Community where she and Grandpa David spent their last years. Grandma kept Grandpa's ashes at their home until she died; we will inter them together in a plot that the family is picking out before the funeral. We will publish some wonderful pictures in the next few days.

Alleluia Christ is Risen, and with Him we will rise again too, Alleluia! On the last day I shall see God in my flesh and live in God forever.

Happy Birthday to Ryan and Hilde!

2008-03-07T18:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, March 6, Ryan celebrated his 17th birthday - go Ryan! Today for Hilde it was the BIG 30. It hardly seems possible.

Forgotten Birthdays

2008-02-25T11:32:00.000-08:00

Gosh, I just realized that I forgot to wish myself and my "Irish-twin" sister Anne Thomason Cavanagh happy birthday. We were not born in the same year, the technical definition of "Irish-twins" as I understand it, but we were born just a year apart, I on February 9, 1954 and she on February 12, 1955. (I did send her an email but not a card) Happy birthday Annie!

Happy 31st Birthday to GEOFF!!

2008-02-24T16:49:00.000-08:00

You say it's YOUR birthday, well happy birthday to ya!

Happy 24th Birthday Jesse Peter Thomason !!

2008-02-02T06:54:00.000-08:00

Robert Alton Thomason

2008-01-27T21:20:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of Grandpa that I had never seen before this year. He is about 19 and this was taken while he was serving in the US Army of Occupation in Korea in 1947. This day he was at a track getting ready to take part in a running event. He and Grandma had gotten married before he left; he was gone for about a year. After the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1948, hostilities broke out in Korea resulting in the Korean War. Grandpa left before the fighting began.

2007 the Year in Review

2008-01-25T12:46:00.000-08:00

I recently found this cute picture of Mama with Pappy in 1950 sitting in his rocking chair. This was his favorite spot, except for the outhouse, and they lived just a stone's throw away from Jumper's Hole Road in rural Elvaton, Maryland where mom grew up. Pappy was Grandpa David Brown's step-father and 20 years younger than Tessie, David's mom. Her first husband William R. Brown II had died after their children, five boys and one girl, had become young adults.

We were very fortunate to have reconnected this year with the Louisiana branch of the Thomason family before Uncle Justin passed away in July at age 95. Through a series of very fortunate events I was able to get in touch with his daughter Pauline Thomason Merka who knows a lot about the family history. Justin was the last living child of my great grandparents Benadict Arnold and Delia Thomason who had thirteen children. Benadict also had three children with his first wife, Sarah Bacle Thomason who died young - before 1886. My grandfather, Alton Benjamin Thomason was a little older than Justin but died September 23, 1941 at the age of 35 from pneumonia.

Photos: Above- Justin Murphy Thomason in front seated, Standing left to right: Justin Joseph "Joe" Thomason, Marion Clare Rogers Thomason (2nd wife), Benjamin Arnold Thomason, Pauline Thomason Merka.

Below: Benadict and Delia Thomason at about age 60 and 48. Alton Benjamin Thomason in undershirt at about age 18. Stanley and Alton Thomason, Stanley was a first cousin of Alton's, the son of one of Benadict's brothers.

The Lambert's Cove Inn

2008-01-14T14:42:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be fun to show you where I spent part of my life growing up. Click on this link http://www.lambertscoveinn.com/ to see the Bed and Breakfast my family started in 1969 on the island of Martha's Vineyard off of the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The current owners have added alot but the basic layout is the way it was when I lived and worked there. Mom and Krissy and I lived there for part of 1975 before we moved to Ann Arbor. Abel got his start there.

In the summer of 1971, after I graduated from The Woodstock Country School (now closed) http://home.gwi.net/wcs/, a boarding school in South Woodstock, Vermont, I went home to work for my family for a year before going off to college at Brandeis University near Boston http://www.brandeis.edu/. In addition to cooking, doing carpentry, making runs to the fish market, and starting a little prayer group, I also had my first experience of raising chickens. I don't remember where or how I got them but I kept them, six or seven hens and a rooster, in an old coop on the property.

I was devastated when, early one morning, I came to feed them and they had all been killed and partially eaten by our own pack of dogs. I say pack because there were always six or seven of them, mostly German Shepherd-Collies that we kept (I'm still not sure why), and which roamed the place at-will much to my father's dismay. They would greet our guests as they drove up to the inn, howling and barking and chasing their cars. More than once, much needed patrons turned around and drove off as my dad cursed the animals in disgust.

It was a good thing that I had decided to stay there that year because in the Fall of 1972 I met Mom while we were both at mass for All Saints Day. (More to come about that meeting).

We originally bought the property while we were living in Yonkers, New York (just north of the Bronx) with plans to renovate and operate it during the summer months. But when my dad was unexpectedly forced to resign his position as headmaster of the Horace Mann School http://www.horacemann.org/home/home.asp by a disgruntled board of trustees, we were forcded to move to the island full-time. We had only been in New York for two years after moving there from Towson, Maryland where my dad had been head of the Park School since 1956 http://www.parkschool.net/ .

Family Camp 2008

2008-01-13T19:05:00.000-08:00

At this time we are planning to go ahead with making reservations for Lorien in Alpena again this year. The stated preference of some is that we rent the whole place, if we can, during our usual time late in July or early August, and then invite other people whom we know would like to be there with us. We found out recently that there is a possibility we might not be able to have use of the schoolhouse the way we have for the last two years. This may be a problem but we are trying to resolve it early on.

A second plan, if Alpena does not work for us this year, is to try to locate another place to our liking, probably closer to Hilde and Charlie. There are a couple of possibilities we know of but we still have time to check them out if Alpena does not work out. Please call, email, or post a response to this if you have input.