The Graveyard Of My Girlhood

No…this is NOT about any trauma I suffered as a child….it really IS about a cemetery.

Welcome to Bronswood. It was founded around 1887 by Gabriel Wright and since then it has been owned by only three Hinsdale, Illinois families.

 Wright sold it, in 1910, to Charles A. Brown, who changed the name from Oak Forest to Bronswood. In August of 1946, the Brown family sold the cemetery company to Philip R. Clarke. All of the current shareholders of Bronswood are descendants of Mr. Clarke.

I discovered Bronswood at about the age of 11 when we moved just a few blocks down from it. I pretty much lived on my bicycle and in the course of exploring my new neighborhood I found myself at its gates.

I knew the moment I entered that this was to be MY place.

It was a tree filled park with water and bridges and a huge drainage pipe that kids could almost walk through!
I came with my brothers and sometimes with friends. But mostly I came by myself.


There was peace here and what felt like miles of curvy winding roads canopied by trees. I must have ridden my bike a thousand miles within the walls of Bronswood.

I rode with the swish and rush of creek water over and around the stone bridges.
I rode in the early morning and in the lengthening shadows of sunset.
Stones marked lives that had ended, yet I sped past them, caught in the wind and the sensation.

I sometimes stopped and stood silent by the grave of Mrs.Slaby my Brownie Scout leader who died of cancer when I was still in grade school. I remembered her blond hair, her kindness, and painting tile trivets. I still have that tile.


I sat upon the cool graves in the emerald shimmering grass beneath the shade of the trees.

I was a solitary young girl straddling the short distance separating life from eternity.

 Each grave became a place marked by my human presence. Bronswood was a
hamlet of the dead and I knew all the houses and streets.

I came to appreciate the grave as architecture, and a symbol of human continuity through time. Bronswood was home.

Sometimes a deer would come perhaps to taste the flowers left upon the stones.

There were always birds in the trees and squirrels and rabbits in the shrubs.


Immediately south of Bronswood was a secluded area, reachable by walking through the trees. At the time, for me,  it was a secret, isolated part of Bronswood.  It was my Butler house.  I have since learned that this is a separate cemetery, called "Butler Cemetery".  Butler is the most prominent name within, and it appears on the "two-story" mausoleum.

Upon the graves were written psalms, songs, and verses.

HEARTS ARE LOST:

HEARTS' LOVES REMAIN



Their voices followed me.
In Bronswood the dead become poets.

I felt a personal responsibility to preserve their authority, heed their concerns, and keep them going in their afterlives.

So I read their names..I said their names out loud.

In return, they helped me to know myself. Bronswood gave form to my life. It organized my thoughts and gave me space to think.

I saw the monuments as guardians. And, in my future life they anchored my past.


Now, as I write this, from my office in Florida, my mind walks over the stone bridge, into the trees, with the path firm under my feet. I am arm and arm with Mr Edward Payson Ripley  b. October 30, 1845 d. February 4, 1920....I visited his "house" often.

Business Magnate. First President of the reorganized Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad in 1895.

The plaque on the door of the mausoleum bears the quote,

 "This is the sunset glow. The shadows will soon begin to lengthen. But if I have died to win the approbation of my contemporaries and to be of benefit to those with whom I have been associated, I can look with complacency on the signs of the closing day and so to my rest content." (Speech made on his 70th birthday.)




And I return to myself, still whole in body, still with a life that is acquiring its finishing touches.

Not knowing how I will let go in the end….but absolutely sure that my soul will return, on my bike, to Bronswood.



Linus G Ruth  1892-1918

Fatally wounded in battle at Chipilly Ridge, France. 131st Regt A.E.F.
Thank you for your service Linus.....you were my soldier....the name I said out loud the most....
 
 
 

The TAX TSUNAMI Coming To ALL of US

This was sent to me.  I have mentioned it and talked about it with others on FB in small pieces.   I felt this was info we ALL needed. 

In just six months, THE LARGEST TAX HIKES IN HISTORY will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2011:

First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief


In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business
owners, and families. These will all expire on January 1, 2011:


Personal income tax rates will rise. The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The
lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized
deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical
effect as higher marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:



- The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%


- The 25% bracket rises to 28%


- The 28% bracket rises to 31%


- The 33% bracket rises to 36%


- The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%




Higher taxes on marriage and family. The “marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income. The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child. The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for
married couples relative to the single level. The dependent care tax credit will be cut.


The return of the Death Tax. This year, there is no death tax. For those dying on or after January 1 2011, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person
leaving behind two homes and a retirement account could easily pass along a death tax bill to
their loved ones.




Higher tax rates on savers and investors. The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011. The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011. These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.

 Second Wave: Obamacare


There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Several will first go into effect on
January 1, 2011. They include:


The Tanning Tax. This went into effect on July 1st of this year. It imposes a new, 10%
excise tax on getting a tan at a tanning salon. There is no exemption for tanners making less
than $250,000 per year.


The “Medicine Cabinet Tax”  Americans will no longer be able to use
health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pretax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).


The HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike. This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.


Brand Name Drug Tax. Starting next year, there will be a multi-billion dollar tax assessment imposed on name-brand drug manufacturers. This tax, like all excise taxes, will raise the price of medicine, hurting everyone.


Economic Substance Doctrine. The IRS is now empowered to disallow perfectly-legal tax deductions and maneuvers merely because it judges that the deduction or action lacks “economic substance.” This is obviously an arbitrary empowerment of IRS agents.


Employer Reporting of Health Insurance Costs on a W-2. This will start for W-2s in the 2011 tax year.


While not a tax increase in itself, it makes it very easy for Congress to tax employer provided healthcare benefits later.


(In plainer words… your W-2 tax form sent by your employer will be increased to show the value of whatever health insurance you are given by the company. It does not matter if that's a private concern or governmental body of some sort.


If you're retired? Your gross will go up by the amount of insurance you get.


You will be required to pay taxes on a large sum of money that you have never seen. Take your tax form you just finished and see what $15,000 or $20,000 additional gross does to your tax debt. That's what you'll pay next year.


For many, it also puts you into a new higher bracket so it's even worse.


Here is a research of the summaries.....


On page 25 of 29: TITLE IX REVENUE PROVISIONS- SUBTITLE A: REVENUE OFFSET PROVISIONS-(sec. 9001, as modified by sec. 10901) Sec.9002 "requires employers to include in the W-2 form of each employee the aggregate cost of applicable employer sponsored group health coverage that is excludable from the employees gross income.")

 Third Wave: The Alternative Minimum Tax and Employer Tax Hikes


When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011, they’ll be in for a nasty
surprise—the AMT won’t be held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired. The major items include:


The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year. The Congress’ failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT tax paying families—rising from 4 million last year to 28.5 million.
These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to just a handful of taxpayers.



Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear. Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or “depreciate”) equipment purchases up to $250,000. This will be cut all the way down to $25,000. Larger businesses can expense half of their purchases of equipment. In January of 2011, all of it will have to be “depreciated.”



Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses. There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place. The biggest is the loss of the “research and experimentation tax credit,” but there are many more. Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.



Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced. The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available. Tax credits for education will be limited.



Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses.

Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut. Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed. The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of thousands of families.



Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed. Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA.  This contribution also counts toward an annual “required minimum distribution.” This ability will no longer be there.


If you think that you will NOT be affected by this.....you are WRONG.  These tax waves will roll through EVERY aspect of society.  All income brackets, all businesses, all investments, ALL.
Welcome...we are all  THE RICH.....

I Am Thinking About....LLOYD'S OF LONDON

If you look to the right under the books I am NOW READING you will see that THE ASCENT OF MONEY is still not done.  Also not completed is AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST.

A short time ago a connection occurred for me while reading the two books.  In ASCENT,  I had reached the chapter on insurance and the author was speaking about LLOYD’S OF LONDON…at the same time,  in the FINGERPOST novel,  I realized that periodically the characters were meeting at LLOYD’S coffee house. SNAP!!!!


When something is insured by LLOYD'S OF LONDON we all know it is special and unique. Now I know how it all got started and how it works. Here is a brief history of LLOYD’S.

Lloyd’s of London is neither a company nor a corporation. It is a British insurance market.


It serves as a meeting place where multiple financial backers or “members”, which can be individuals, who are known as “Names” or corporations, come together to pool and spread risk. Their main business is in the reinsurance market.


The market began in Edward Lloyd’s coffeehouse around 1688 on Tower Street, London.


Mr. Lloyd served as a sort of one-man tourist center and evidence suggests that, for a price, he was not above fixing a press gang who shanghaied men into the naval service.

His coffeehouse was a popular place for sailors, merchants, and ship owners. Lloyd’s main business with his customers was to provide reliable shipping news, which he gathered from all his different customers and then fed back to them. The shipping industry community frequented the place to discuss insurance deals among themselves.

Nothing else is known about Edward Lloyd.


Soon after Christmas in 1691, the establishment moved to Lombard Street, where today a blue plaque commemorates its location.

Long after Lloyd’s death in 1713 the arrangement continued until 1774 when the participating members of the insurance arrangement formed a committee and moved to the Royal Exchange, and called itself The Society of Lloyd’s.


Here,  Lloyd's List, a paper devoted to shipping news, was published in 1734, making it the oldest London newspaper excepting the London Gazette.

 By 1760 the precursor of Lloyd's Register of Shipping had been printed and only 15 years later the phrase A-1 was used in its pages to denote the highest class of ship, novelist Charles Dickens 1st applying A-1 to people and things in 1837. A-2 and A-3 indicated inferior grades.

Between 1688 and 1807 a primary source of Lloyd's business was the insurance of ships engaged in slave trading, since Britain was rapidly becoming the chief slave trading power in the Atlantic.

British shipping carried more than 3.25 million people into slavery. By the end of the eighteenth century, slaves had come to dominate British trade.

The dangers involved necessarily meant that insurance of slave shipping was a major concern. Between 1689 and 1807, 1,053 British vessels were lost during these activities.


The insuring of ships engaged in slave trading became LLOYD’S major area of focus.  Because this formed such a prominent part of Lloyd’s business, the organization was one of the chief opponents to the abolition of slavery.


In 1838 the Exchange burned down and, although rebuilt, many of Lloyd’s early records were lost.

In 1871, The first Lloyd’s Act was passed in Parliament which elevated the business to a legal footing. The Lloyd’s Act of 1911 set out the Society’s objectives, which included the promotion of its members’ interests and the collection and dissemination of information.


The membership of the Society, which had been largely made up of market participants, was realized to be too small in relation to the market's capitalization and the risks that it was underwriting.


Lloyd's response was to commission a secret internal inquiry, known as the 'Cromer Report', which reported in 1968.

This report advocated the widening of membership to non-market participants, including non-British subjects and women.

They also needed to reduce the onerous capitalization requirements (which created a more minor investor known as a mini-Name).

The Report also drew attention to the danger of conflicts of interest.


Lloyd's of London, which began by writing only marine insurance at its inception, is now world-famous for what it insures.


Lloyd's, now international, eventually moved to the Royal Exchange and finally to its present $15-million palace on Lime Street.

It adopted its name legally when incorporated a century ago, not long before writing the 1st burglary insurance (1889). Lloyd's also wrote the 1st policy covering loss of profits resulting from fire and pioneered in automobile and workman's compensation insurance.


The corporation can issue anything but long-term life insurance.


Rather than an insurance company, it is a corporate group of some 300 syndicates composed of about 5,500 strictly supervised individual underwriters, each of whom must deposit large sums--about $35,000--as security against default on the risks each accepts.

Although the group did not write the 1st marine policy--this dating back to a Florentine policy issued in 1501--its name is synonymous with marine insurance and Lloyd's has long pioneered in setting maritime standards and safety measures. Lloyd's prime concern is still shipping insurance and it boasts that its agents watch every mile of seacoast throughout the world.

An underwriter of the 1880s named Cuthbert Bean was mainly responsible for the group pioneering beyond marine insurance. Some interesting Lloyd's policies and losses in its risky history include:


...a "happiness policy" that insured against "worry lines" developing on a model's face.

...losses paid of $3,019,400 after the Titanic disaster; more than $5.6 million on the Andrea Doria; $1,463,400 on the San Francisco earthquake; $110 million on Hurricane Carol in 1954.

...$22,400 worth of protection ($74 premium) against "death caused by accident" in the form of a falling sputnik.

 ...policies insuring against the chances of having twins, one's golf opponent making a hole in one, war and peace, rained-out church socials, and losing one's lover.

...Betty Grable's legs insured for $250,000.

Jimmy Durante's nose, $140,000.





Flamenco dancer Jose Greco's special trousers insured against splitting at $980 a pair.

Fred Astaire's legs for $650,000. 

Abbott and Costello insured for $250,000 against disagreement over a 5-year period;

...Risks turned down include a policy insuring the back teeth of an acrobat, who hung from them in her act.

And.... the request by a European gentleman to insure his daughter's virginity.

Provide a bunch of guys with a bar and a little over 300 years…..sometimes they surprise you!