cecilia bernini

Singer: Cecilia Bernini, Mezzo-soprano (middle soprano)
​Language: Latin
Composer: Johann Adolph Hasse (1699-1783), tenor
Painter: Raphael
Figures: Christ, Moses, and Elijah
Location: Mount Tabor

My stepfather's surname was Hassing, which is Danish, and Denmark is north of northern Germany. He watched the Friday Night Fights every Friday, whereas my nana listened to opera on the radio. She lived about four miles from us in San Francisco, but her habits were known. A schoolteacher for 27 years at Garfield Elementary, Telegraph Hill, she retired in 1958.

She had her sorrow, too. Her husband lost all their considerable money in the 1929 stock market crash, which forced her into teaching, and because of her father's advice, she had a college degree and was qualified. Living as a single woman until death, she was an honorable woman who, singlehandedly, paid off all the debts incurred during marriage.