My Grandma’s a Ninja

Intro to “My Grandma’s a Ninja”: December 2016

Letters, Journals, Notes, Illustrations, Photos. I give thanks to the mothers in my family who kept their daughter’s letters—specifically, Nan Browning keeping Alice Crew’s letters and Julia Cole keeping Elizabeth Fleming’s. It continues to amaze me that these letters

• were lovingly protected through transoceanic travel during the early 20^th century
• survived outright neglect in late 20^th century storage systems (woodsheds, garages, basements)
• magically ended up in my tiny condo in Uptown on the north side of Chicago.

Some things to have in mind while reading:

1. The DJ Flemings and Webster Brownings met in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1925, eleven years before my parents “officially” met in New York City. (Part 4)
2. My father became the Dean of Students at Park College in Parkville, Missouri, in 1947. Both Nan Browning and I were born there: 1873 and 1950, respectively.
3. When Julia Alvord Cole married John Cole, a civil engineer in Chicago, in 1870, they became the first Julia-and-John combination; Julia Kittle Hynes married John Hynes, a civil engineer in Chicago, in 2016. (Part 1 and 5)

Part 1: Ninja and Table of Contents

Part 2: PCF to BK

Part 3: Alice to Nan

Part 4: Missionary Movement/Family

Part 5: ECF to Julia A

Part 6: ECF to Julia B