Originally published in LLL US Western Division’s Connections #77, May/June 1998
We are not the only family to have lived in this north Pittsburgh house. The Nesbit family bough the lot from John and Catherin Cummings over 30 years ago, one of seven lots carved out of the old Calvert Estate. In 1968 the Nesbits built the original brick house. Then Dr. Stranghorn and his wife Naomi moved in and added a large dining room. Carol and Jim Logan bought the house from the Stranghorns in 1987 and sold the house to us ten years later.
Our yard plantings have been contributed by at least five families now. The Calverts probably planted the pine, spruce, crab apple, and maple trees. Our cream- and pink-blossomed rhododendron shrubs were probably contributed by the Nesbits, judging by their size. The daffodils and crocuses look younger, perhaps from the Logans. All the families kept the rose and raspberry hedges along our lane pruned. I have reaped the beauty of the lovely yellows of the spring blooms of the huge forsythia bush at the end of our driveway, the oranges of the daylilies, and the crimson buds of the dainty hawthorn tree on our front lawn.
I am the present steward of the garden and the house now. And, if my family’s moving history continues, we probably will not be the last to live here. I have planted sugar maples, peonies, lilac bushes, and more rhododendrons. I have added more daffodils, tulips, and most recently some pass-along pussy willows from my friend Peg. I enjoy the cementware fawn the Logans left and added a rabbit and a cute little mole. This yard is a work in progress.
I am also not the only one who has had this La Leche League job. Agnes Leistico, Fran Dereszynski, and Gwen Ward Evans were my USWD predecessors in editing Connections, and I have enjoyed using their organized files and reading their semiannual reports. I also regularly mine former issues for the articles they edited or wrote themselves. I am part of a team of my known predecessors and my future successors, whomever they might be.
Our jobs in La Leche League get passed on by Leaders to other Leaders, like bulbs and perennials, houses and gardens. We make our own contributions during our terms. We weed and prune the files, add our own folders, and provide information, encouragement and support to administrators and Leaders around the Western Division. Our legacies in Area and Division work are the teamwork, beauty, camaraderie, and usefulness that we pass on to the next “owners†of the work.
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