Cast of characters: Cecilia

"She's mine, all mine...." -Aunt Beth
Cecilia below with Aunt Beth
and Granny, circa 2000






Cecilia, above, in a recent photo at her best friend Kate's house in N.H.



An early contributor to Ajax Rock and great-grandaughter of Peck and Roena, Cecilia Brooks Falter is Auntienan's only grandchild and light of her life. She is the family's sun around which all of us planets revolve. Her aunt Beth shamelessly claims her as her own, even though she belongs to Beth's brother Mitch. Oh, and there's the small matter of her mother Angie, but let's not talk about that, because in these stories, we claim her as totally our own -- all of her beauty, accomplishments and talents are either "Falterian" or "Simpkinsian" for our purposes.

Maybe every grandma thinks hers is the best grandchild on the planet, but this grandma will duel anyone who even challenges that declaration. For years, we held our collective breath, waiting for a flaw -- any flaw -- to surface. And when it did, we celebrated, high-fived and argued over whose flaw it was. From the very beginning, everyone wanted a piece of this kid. She needs an agent.

Although only 1/8th Simpkins, the genes have marked her. She is so verbal that she could only come from our family and, like her granny and great-granny, she can talk the legs right off a table. She also loves a good argument, a rousing discussion, a debate for the sake of debate. And she has the Simpkins' brown eyes and the "don't-cross-this-line" determination when it's called for, even though her disposition is generally sunny (though where she lives is decidedly unsunny, especially this winter when all records for snowfall have been broken in New Hampshire.)

Cecilia has escaped some of the more trying Simpkins traits and has the Shaferian and Falterian desire for playing down conflict. She likes to get along, and she likes to have fun, and if there's no fun happening, she's great at creating it. She grew up without television or a neighborhood play group, so she developed her creativity and learned to do things most of us never learn to do, like building her own kayak, weaving baskets, sewing and crocheting, playing lacrosse and field hockey and hockey and cross-country skiing, and she never flinches from opportunties that present themselves. She has read more books at age 15 than I will have read at the end of a lifetime and once told me that her passion for reading was so great that if there was nothing else to read, she would gladly read a grocery list!

She has spent part of two summers in Ireland, having qualified through the Johns Hopkins University talented youth program to participate in new learning experiences, and she just transferred to a public school last fall, much to her delight. She's so far ahead in the academic programs that she's spending time catching up on social things, even going to "homecoming." Her current passion is "tech," which involves backstage work for theater productions, and she spends as much time as she can with her best friend Kate and her lucky boyfriend Kevin.

Cecilia is smart and funny and adorable, and watching her grow up is a gift like no other. We'll all be hearing a lot more from this charmer, because just like her grandma, she's got a lot to say!