September 3, 2024 —Written By: Stef Chiguluri
Walking into Craig’s cottage at Kendal at Lexington is like entering a portal into the past. One sees furniture encasing artifacts from Italy and Morocco, Oriental rugs hand-selected with a former neighbor who had been stationed in Afghanistan, engraved maps, historical sights, and ancestral homes, framed calligraphy from the 1700s, and shelves of books, including ones associated with their own family histories.
Meet Marise
She calls herself and her husband, Bill, “history buffs,” which was immediately apparent when I was shown a 2,500-year-old Italian bowl that was kept in a glass shelf just behind where I sat in their living room. This was just one of many artifacts that eloquently decorated their space.
Their spare bedroom is better known as “the ancestry room.” Photographs of many of their ancestors line the walls, including side-by-side images of their dads, both of whom fought in WWII in the South Pacific, and a watercolor portrait of Marise’s fourth great-grandfather, one of Napoleon’s generals. Marise said family photographs and ephemera – from the ones held in antique frames to the ones kept in her three-ring binders – are probably her most prized possessions.
Marise recalled writing to her grandmother asking about her family history. Her grandmother sent her back pages written in French. Marise translated these pages and discovered they went back 24 generations to the Crusades. That was her introduction to her rich family history.
The “Cape and Hat”
One of the first items that interested me when welcomed into Marise and Bill’s home was a black dress and lace-decorated cape that hangs on a mannequin dress form paired with a black bonnet-type cap, purse, and shoes. The garments had belonged to her third great-grandmother who, as a child, crossed the Oregon Trail in the 1850s. Information from this family line led her to discover her Mayflower ancestors, including one who had previously settled in Jamestown.
Before Kendal
Marise and Bill have been married 51 years. They met in high school one evening when Marise walked into a shoe store where Bill worked, looking for an after-school job. They dated for four years, during which she attended the University of Virginia, and he attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
Before coming to Kendal at Lexington, Marise and Bill lived in Madison, VA, in a home built of reclaimed logs and a timber-frame farmhouse. They loved the stories the reclaimed materials held, as well as the affinity with their ancestors who lived in early Virginia homes. After all, Marise noted, many of their ancestors “literally settled the Valley of Virginia.”
While in Madison, they both spent time volunteering in the archaeology lab at Montpelier, James Madison’s home in Orange, VA. “Lore has it,” Marise said, “that [The Marquis de] Lafayette gave Madison two Cedar of Lebanon trees.” One of the trees died, and now a limb from that tree has been made into a computer desk in their home.
The two have also spent a lot of time traveling together. Many of the items in their living room are pieces they’ve brought back from their adventures, especially from three years living in Italy. In addition to Italy, they’ve also been to Scotland, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, France, Germany, Greece, Morocco, and more recently, Eastern Europe.
Traveling is an opportunity for these two to connect with their ancestry and history. Marise knew her family’s history before visiting Scotland. She told the story of ancestors from her family’s clan, the MacDonald’s, surviving the 1692 Massacre of Glencoe by escaping to the nearby town of Thornhill. She and Bill visited Thornhill, stayed in a hotel built in the 1600s, and visited the town’s church cemetery where they found the headstones of Marise’s fourth and fifth great-grandparents.
Downsizing
Marise and Bill enjoyed antiquing as a hobby for many years and had built up several collections, ranging from vibrant floral cookie jars to stoneware crocks, copperplate engravings, and irons. When they made the move to Kendal from Madison, they had to downsize their collections by approximately 40%. When downsizing, they tried to avoid getting rid of family heirlooms and gave their two children, ages 48 and 45, the opportunity to claim pieces to continue to pass down. Their son took a grandfather clock from Belfast, Ireland, and their daughter took a chair that has rocked babies in the family for six generations, as well as many photographs and diaries. Marise hopes her kids and grandkids will continue preserving and passing down their family history.
Coming to Kendal at Lexington
Before visiting Kendal at Lexington for the first time, Marise had read an article about one of the residents that piqued her interest. She and Bill then came and visited, finding that Kendal at Lexington exceeded all their expectations. They fell in love with the vibrant and engaged community not only on campus but in Lexington as well. Bill was particularly interested in living in a small city, and Marise wanted to be close to family in Virginia.
They put their name on the waitlist immediately after their visit, expecting to wait the typical five to eight years, but this past summer, just before a 50th-anniversary trip, they got a call saying there was an opening for them. “It was meant to be,” Marise said. “There’s always something interesting going on. But more than anything, they’ve loved getting to know the other community members. “I love hearing our neighbors’ stories,” Marise said. “They’ve led fascinating lives.” And it’s a delight to learn about them.