LifeQs
Virginia Grace Clark
Answer one question or many - using words, photos or other media.
Ginny Clark
Kindness is rarely the easiest approach, but it is (usually) the best...albeit a learned trait for most of us rather than an innate one (save your Aunt Shan). To the extent you are able--you're my daughter, after all--let kindness be your default. You aren't likely to regret it. Let kindness be your default, but if that doesn't work, give 'em hell. "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war."
Elizabeth *
Circumstances may not be entirely within your control, but happiness is. You're only a few months old, but after just one very short babysitting session with you, I suspect that you probably already know this.
Ginny Clark
The Sneetches
All things Beverly Cleary and Roald Dahl
The Great Gatsby
Pride & Prejudice
A Prayer for Owen Meany
The Age of Innocence
All things Beverly Cleary and Roald Dahl
The Great Gatsby
Pride & Prejudice
A Prayer for Owen Meany
The Age of Innocence
Elizabeth *
As your mom says, Pride and Prejudice and Age of Innocence, definitely! No wonder I like her so much...
Elizabeth *
As you no doubt know well by now, you are so lucky to have been born to this set of parents, so completely committed to you and your sister. When you're older, I'll tell you the story of how your parents met. Bottom line is same as all bottom lines where your parents are concerned: your mom sees what she wants, and she gets it. You're on exactly the right side of Team Clark, little Gracie.
Elizabeth *
Your mother's wit, brilliance, resourcefulness, and passion. Your father's wit, brilliance, resourcefulness, and compassion.
Ginny Clark
Long. Very, very long. And better suited for someone not forty-one. (But I hear you cooing in the background as I type, and I could not be more grateful.)
Ginny Clark
I remember demanding high doses of anti-anxiety meds in the IV before the epidural. (Mommy is a coward.) And, frankly--and thankfully--I don't remember much after that. Apparently, I told Auntie Elizabeth to come visit a few hours after you were born, and then I told her not to...AFTER she was on her way and had already changed her flight. A lesser friend would've held a grudge. A meeker friend would've simmered in silence. But mercifully (and begrudgingly), Auntie Elizabeth forgave...though she's not likely to let mommy forget. It is precisely those qualities that earned her the title Auntie.
Ginny Clark
I love you more today than yesterday, which I simultaneously cannot fathom and yet know to be--know that it must be--true. You and your sister are the best gifts and the greatest accomplishments of my otherwise uneventful but very happy life. As my mother told me (and only now do I understand), "you're the best thing I ever did."
Ginny Clark
Virginia is a family name on both your mother's and father's side of the family: it is your mother's name, your maternal great-great-aunt's name (your mother's namesake), and your paternal great-grandmother's name.