My regular readers, and those of you who have been with me over the past couple of years know about my love and fondness and respect for my grandmother whom I refer to as La Jolie Grandmere. She was all about beauty and grace, intellect, charm, creativity, independence and living... She was my greatest inspiration and still is to this day, 8 years after her passing. For anyone who can rebound from paralysis from Polio at the tender age of 29 and survive the loss of her first husband in her 40s and still manage to see the beauty in the world around her is certainly my idol... While in her wheelchair she picked up and moved to Paris where she renovated an old brownstone to create a desirable Pied a Terre on Paris' magnificent Ile de la Cite. This magnificent transformation was photographed in Maison et Jardin. She captured the hearts of many, including famous American playwright Thornton Wilder. It is because of my grandmother - it is because she never for a moment considered herself to be handicapped... because she never for one minute stopped to doubt or to hesitate...because she knew all about living... because she truly walked (or, in her case rolled) on the sunny side of the street... that I still miss her terribly and respect her so. I think of her often, still, to this day. I often wonder what she would do if she was in my situation...and, I still turn to her for advice... There is a terrible and vast void in my heart. It is my hope and dream, as many of you know, to publish the wonderful and charming stories of her life. This is no secret.

Bettina Bachmann, @ early 1970s

Somehow, through the marvelous marketing and networking application that Twitter has become, I followed and eventually befriended the lovely Shelley Caroe aka "Wykeham Girl." Somehow, Rochester, NY must have worked its way into one of our conversations. Shelley asked me whether I had known the Durand or the Strong families. I had known the name Strong in its affiliation with the highly acclaimed hospital bearing the name, Strong Memorial Hospital. The other meant nothing to me, but I wasted not a minute and immediately sent my mother an email asking her of these families. (I had grown up on the Upper East Side, my mother in a Rochester, NY suburb.)

Both names, I was told, were established and terribly important in Rochester's history. The Durand family was responsible for bringing the railroad system into Rochester and connecting that area to the Midwest. Old society. Surely they would know La Jolie Grandmere and her family. Shelley's relatives were friends with George Eastman. So was my great-grandfather. He was George's next-door neighbor. Their lives must have crossed! Surely they must have interacted and socialized with my family!

Not long later I got a wonderful email from my mother. In it was a clipping from the local paper, a picture of 6 young women on horseback. Look closely... Can you read the captions? There they are right next together on horseback - La Jolie Grandmere (Betty Jane Hart) and Virginia Durand! Isn't it wonderful?!

A few days after sending this clipping to her, I had the absolute privilege of meeting Shelley at Brimfield in person! We hit it off immediately. She is very much like me... little in stature but huge in personality!

Below Shelley and I... she had just learned that I was there in the Benjamin Moore tent with her! Her nephew is in the background... Isn't he adorable? (The pictures could be more flattering, but alas it's all I have and I shall put my vanity aside for this!)