Post Order

This site will not function like a normal blog.  I have tried to set it up so that instead of the newest posts showing up at the beginning, they will show up in the order of the events.  The first posts will be the oldest and the last will be more recent for the most part.  It is a more natural reading order.  Check out the menu at the right of the pages to see the posts and shortcut to them.

The Gate of the Year.

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:

 

Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.

 

And he replied:

 

Go out into the darkness and put thine hand into the hand of God.

 

That shall be to thee better than a light and safer than a known way.

M.L. Haskins (1908)

A Loving Heart

A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge.
 

Thomas Carlyle


These are people in our lives who have loved each other.
 

 Lowell Paul McLaughlin and Mary Carolina Cafarella Mitchell McLaughlin, on my graduation day in 1971

 

 Mary Rose Mitchell Burrill and Frederick Wendell Burrill 1959

 

 Mary Carolina Cafarella Mitchell and Richard Bruce Mitchell 1937

 

Maurice Doubleday and Carol Mitchell Doubleday

 Mary Rose Mitchell and Richard Bruce Mitchell I and II 1944?

 

Anerio Cincotta and Jennie Cincotta

Philip Anerio Cincotta and  Jennie Cafarella Cincotta 

Rose Cafarella Cincotta and Jake Cincotta

Anerio Cincotta and Margaret Egan Cincotta

Mary Augusta Robb Cafarella and Joseph Gaetano Cafarella

Mary Rose Cincotta Cafarella and Joseph Gaetano Cafarella 1905

Nancy Cafarella and Miranda Ariel Bailey

Richard DeFina and Doreen Marie Slattery DeFina

Mary Rose Mitchell, Mary Rose Cincotta Cafarella and Richard Bruce Mitchell II

John Joseph Thornton, Harry Tuscan Thornton and William Philip Mitchell 2013

William Philip Mitchell, Sarah Thornton Kelley and John Joseph Thornton 2013

 

Terry Bittker and John Joseph Thornton 2005

Florence Montalto Cincotta and Anerio Cincotta

 

John Joseph Thornton, Sandra Garifoli Huchinson and William Philip Mitchell 2013

Cathy Gregrow, William Philip Mitchell, John Joseph Thornton, Judy Wimer 2013

 

John Joseph Thornton and Roland Huges  2005

John Joseph Thornton and Samir Bhattacharyya 2012

Vincent Strom and John Joseph Thornton about 2007

William Philip Mitchell and John Joseph Thornton about 2007

Elaine Guthrie and John Joseph Thornton 

 

 

 



I WAS A NORTH SHORE KIND OF GUY

This is me at about the same age as the photo of John below.  However, it is about seven years earlier.  My father had just died and we were there from our home in northern Maine, with my sister, brother, cousin Nancy and...Charlotte...Don't ask.

This is Revere Beach.  My mother used to say I had a wiry build on the school reports.  I was actually a stick figure with big eyes.

Nancy, my sister Mary, then called Dolly most of the time, my mother, me and my brother Dick.





JOHN WAS A SOUTH SHORE KIND OF GUY

 

Even at three, John was into resort wear.  Nothing has changed.  They were trying to protect his fair skin even then.  It was not even fashionable to "Hat" your kids then.  However the rest of the outfit is very Au Courant.  This is the beach at Hull/Nantasket.  John has fond memories of the beach there, including going there to the beach and the amusement park with his brother Michael and his uncle.

Terry and Gallaudet

 

Terry Bittker and John mugging for the camera at her sister's house in Hull in 2005.  Terry has been John's friend since they attended Gallaudet University in Washington DC. together, many years ago.  Terry still lives in the Mid Atlantic area, and sees John rarely, but there has been a real love between them for a long time.
 Terry was a year ahead of John when he arrived at Gallaudet.  She helped him assimilate into the community there. 
John had all of his hearing as a child, and with a hearing aid, he was pretty good in the hearing world.  He had little need of American Sign Language.  Gallaudet was very much into American Sign, and most of its students used it for regular communication.  John and many similar students tended to seek out each others' company.

 

Thanks, Wikipedia for the photo of Gallaudet University in the 1860s...a little before Terry and John's time there. 

 

Of course his hearing problems have some effect on him.  For the most part, however, he never let that stand in his way and I have never found it to be a real obstacle in his life and professional life.  He has held a string of very responsible and trustworthy positions in the banking world over the years.       

John's Birthday 06-05-2002

 

We exchanged Commitment Rings in February of that year.  We later used them for the wedding.