Category: ThrowbackThursday

It was International Woman’s Day on Monday and today I want to share two of the most important women in my life: My mom and grandma. They were both strong, independent women and I wouldn’t be who I am today without them. My mother was the one who worked hard to get us out of Cuba and to give us the ability to achieve the American dream. She was sure there was no country better than the USA and she was right. My grandmother was the one at her side, helping my mom raise her family so that my mom could work. Like her daughter, she was indefatigable and an amazing cook! She could make anything taste good. Both my mom and grandmother were also voracious readers and I picked up that trait from them. As you can imagine, being a big reader led me to also thinking about being a writer. Thank you mami and abuela for being who you were. I miss you every day! This is a picture of us at Easter.

One of our favorite things to do during our annual Christmas trip to New York City is to visit the big library on 42nd Street. We always check out whatever new exhibit is happening, but also take a look at some of their standard collections. One of the collections is in the Children’s section, namely, the original dolls that inspired the Winnie the Pooh stories. Check out this picture of them!

My grandmother Nieves was an amazing woman. Strong. Independent. Loving. When my parents had to leave my sister and me behind in Cuba, it was my grandparents who stayed with us and then traveled with us across various countries before we could legally enter the U.S. She was also an outstanding cook. She could take anything from the fridge and make an amazing meal. I am named after her since my first real name is Caridad de las Nieves. I had to change it when I was naturalized. This is a picture of my sister and me with her, I believe on the day I graduated law school.

As a lawyer, you have to present a certain image to your clients, especially corporate clients. The right dress or suit. Appropriate hair and make-up. I have to confess that on the latter, I was an epic fail as I never really wore make-up. My laptop also had to look professional which meant nothing personal on it even though it was my personal laptop I was using at the time. Now that I’m retired, I realized that there was nothing wrong with personalizing it to reflect who I am now! Thanks to my daughter for the inspiration also! Here it is:

I love seeing people’s throwbacks to another time. It’s fun to see how things have changed and also how much they’ve stayed the same (or at least we like to think they have). My throwback today is to my senior photo from high school. I grew up in Levittown which had three different public high schools, four if you consider Island Trees which was also in Levittown but not part of our school district. I went to Levittown Memorial High School which is no longer a functioning high school. The building still exists though and is being used by the Board of Education as a career and technical center. Our school colors were red and black and our mascot was a Panther.

The other day I shared some of my fav places in Miami with you and so I thought I’d share this photo with you today! We took it during a spring vacation at the Miami Seaquarium. We had so much fun there and hanging out in South Beach and on Calle Ocho.

Part of what I’ve been doing now that we’ve downsized is gathering and scanning old photos in order to preserve them. I’ve found some fun photos that brought back memories of growing up in Queens and then Levittown. I’m pretty sure this is an elementary school photo, probably first or second grade. I did those two grades and third grade in Queens before we moved to Levittown. I seem to be wearing red in a lot of those early school photos I guess because red is my favorite color!