What's in a name?

My mother - Jennet Patricia Cantelo. March 18, 1917 - January 19, 1989.

Today, she would have been 92.

Here she is (above) on probably the happiest day of her life, January 31, 1942, the day she married my dad - Philip Benson. In August, 7 months later, dad was on a ship to England then on to France, Holland and Germany before coming home in August, 1945 (and it wasn't the scenic tour!). Besides a wife, he had a 2 and a half year old son, Philip Garry, waiting for him when he returned.

Two years after his return from death and misery and destruction and war, Patricia Sharon-Ann (that's me!) came into their family. Five years later their third child, Frederick Dale (1952-1974), was born.

And that was our family. Three kids and a mom and a dad......and always a cat in the home for a pet!

All of us kids were called by our second name. It was unusual, but mom was called by her second name too, so they must have thought it seemed fitting to follow along with the tradition. It was OK by me.....except in school, at the beginning of the year, when all the teachers called me Patricia, I would get exceedingly embarrassed at the thought of having to speak up in class to tell them I was called by my second name. How wretched THAT was!!!

But I was named after my mother, now a great source of pride for me. I enjoy my first name...now! When one is younger, one doesn't really appreciate the special identity one has been given. Yes, I am my mother's daughter in name and in Irish temperament. Perhaps not quite as fiesty, but a flicker of that temper can appear in me, nonetheless.

Patricia means princess. Some folks at work call me the "Duchess of Kent", so maybe there's something to that.:-) Ah well, royal princess blood or not, I was a princess to my parents!

And my older brother was named after my dad and my younger brother after my dad's oldest brother. See. Names within a family unit. They mean something. They offer up something to carry on down the line of folks to come. Some names I know, are a little heavier to carry than others but they still have meaning.

I enjoy hearing about people's names....their origin, their meaning and how they fit into their family unit.

The angel Gabriel told Mary to name her son "Jesus", and she did.

I wonder, if that task had been left solely to Mary, what she would have called him....a bit of a silly question of course, but sometimes when we have the responsibility of naming our children, we certainly can come up will some dillies!

I still like the name "Patricia"... and a "Happy Birthday" to my dear mom! Now she was a real princess!