Finally found an actual picture of my grandfather . . .

!





Last night I was looking through Google Books typing in various queries and found
the first picture I have ever seen of my grandfather!

After my father died my sister and I never heard back from anyone on my dad's side of the family. So we never got to know where we came from. I remember hearing when I was a little girl that we had a family member who built churches...

This past January I decided to contact the Chicago History Museum - and was sent all of my grandfather A.I.A. paper work!

I never knew it was our grandfather...

It is all making so much more sense to me now - if we knew where we came from - we would have known that the whole "bankrupt cab driver" theory didn't fit.

The whole thing is very sad though. ...My father raised me in such a way that while I understood the importance of money - I also was taught how important it is to be proud of what one is.

Anyways forget the money, the possible insurance money we didn't receive, the stock dividends, and the trust fund money.

If we had access to the knowledge of who we were, the pride of family, that in itself could have made a huge difference in our lives.

For example - my sister wanted to be an interior designer. . .She actually applied to the Arts Institute of Chicago - yet could not attend for lack of the financial means to do so.

If she had knowledge that her grandfather was a life time member of the Arts Institute of Chicago perhaps she could have gotten a scholarship of some kind.

Or some kind of recommendation from one of her grandfather's old associates for an internship.

However, sadly, EVERYTHING was hidden from us. Even where we came from. . .:(

Oddly enough my sister painted her whole room a few years ago ( walls and floors included) to make it looked like it was covered in stained glass.

From what I've heard this was our Grandfather's signature touch to the churches he built.

Floor to ceiling stained glass windows...

Speaking of that I'm about to head to the Metropolitan Museum of art - some of my grandfather's publications are there....this is exciting!

I can't wait to take my sister on a tour to drive and see some of the churches our grandfather built.


My grandmother and her wealthy Washingtonian lawyers can try as best they can to handle my father's estate in such a way that we don't receive anything . .. not even pictures or personal item - but they can't erase literature and books ...and radio interviews of our grandfather

Here are some interviews I found of my grandfather a few years ago - I never understood as to why he was mentioning communism whilst talking about Church design . . .now I do :) ..he grew up in his formative years along with his father who was an engineer in the Siberia for Allen and Garcia

http://historicalvoices.org/pbuilder/pbarch/terkel/a0/a0/terkel-a0a0x9-b_15805.rm

http://historicalvoices.org/pbuilder/pbarch/terkel/a0/a0/terkel-a0a0y0-b_15805.rm

http://historicalvoices.org/pbuilder/pbarch/terkel/a0/a0/terkel-a0a0y1-b_15805.rm

http://historicalvoices.org/pbuilder/pbarch/terkel/a0/a0/terkel-a0a0y2-b_15805.rm


As a young child I dreamed of attending the School of Foreign Service. My father was very supportive of that decision...anyways I'll get on more to that in another post...

But for now - I'd like to close this post with a letter he wrote to me just a few months before his death . . .