Chapter 557 Mystery of life experience

  Ronald and Jodie Foster went to New Haven for French food, which was good but small.

   “When I read a good novel or watch a good play, I will come here with Jennifer to share the joy.” Jodie Foster likes this restaurant very much.

   "Hmm..." Ronald listened absent-mindedly, and dipped the bread in olive oil into his mouth.

  Foster was a little discouraged when he saw that Ronald was only focusing on eating baguettes and not paying attention to himself. She thought again, grabbed Ronald's other hand, and asked, "Why don't we go to my dormitory and discuss your views on movies. I really like your narrative in 'Longwei Kid' Rhythm, the role of Miyagi-sensei is very good."

   "Huh...huh?" Ronald was still thinking about the similar brass key.

   "Don't worry, your great-grandfather may have changed his name, or transferred to another university."

  Judy shook Ronald's hand. She thought that he was in a bad mood because of his great-grandfather. "I'll take a picture of my audition first. Let's exchange phone numbers and keep in touch."

Ronald had no intention of chatting, and went to her dormitory to get the audition photos and resume. After exchanging numbers, he refused Jodie Foster's request to stay, and hurried back to the hotel in New Haven, and took the relic box from his father. , dig out the key.

   "Well, this should not be a Yale key. Although the appearance is similar, the patterns and letters on it do not conform to the Yale tradition. I think it should be used by a similar old school nearby."

  The Yale librarian looked at Ronald's key patiently. The abstract plant pattern on it was obviously different from Yale's ivy, and the cursive letters of "MH" did not belong to any Yale college.

   "MH, you can try Mount Holyoke College. They are also one of the Seven Sisters girls' schools. They have a history as long as Yale. It takes about an hour and a half to drive from here."

   "Didi..." Ronald drove the rented car full of thoughts and arrived in the small town of South Hadley, Massachusetts in the afternoon. In an old building, I found the location of Mount Holyoke College.

  Seven Sisters Liberal Arts Colleges are seven women's liberal arts colleges (Liberal Arts) that were founded almost at the same time as the Ivy League. Each has vague ties to one or more Ivy League universities. The relationship between Mount Holyoke College and Yale and Dartmouth is like that between Harvard and Wesleyan College.

  Students of women's liberal arts colleges can go to each other's universities to attend lectures and recognize each other's credits. Eligible students can also transfer between schools.

   Even the students on both sides, there are many married couples. It can be regarded as a shortcut for high-level talents to solve marriage problems. Therefore, only a few hundred students are recruited here every year, and the vast majority are women. Teaching history, arithmetic, literature, humanities and other subjects.

  The gate of Mount Holyoke College is a large iron gate installed between the two ancient towers. After entering the school, there are no new buildings inside, all of which are old buildings completed before the last century.

  The teaching building is a neoclassical building with red bricks on the outside, colonnades at the gate, and carriage aisles. In the middle is a tall bell tower. On the hill next to it, there is also an ancient observatory. It happened to be the class time in the afternoon, and there was no one in the school. The thatch was growing randomly, accompanied by the ripples on the lake. Make the campus more quiet.

   Ronald became nervous inexplicably, his heart was pounding. He had the feeling that the ancient history of his family was reaching out to him.

  In the quiet campus, Ronald found the library.

  The Williston Library is also an old building. The steps at the entrance are sunken in the middle due to wear and tear. The sunlight slanted over and reflected into Ronald's eyes on the large glass window at the entrance, which was a bit dazzling.

   "Where are you a student? There are neither griffins nor flying horses on your clothes. It seems that you came from another school?" The administrator of the library stopped Ronald to ask.

"ah…"

"I've seen a lot of college students like you, and they all want to sneak into Mount Holyoke to find a girlfriend. We all have passwords here. Those who enroll in odd-numbered years use griffin and yellow-green, and those who enroll in even-numbered years use Pegasus and red-blue. color, you don't have anything on your clothes, is it Yale or Dartmouth?"

   "Neither, I'm from New York."

"That's not allowed. The library can't lend books to college students who are not from our school and have signed a mutual credit recognition program with our school. New York University..." The old female administrator, with gray hair, spoke very funny, implying It means that New York University does not belong to the Ivy League, so don't come to climb the female students here.

   "I'm here to ask if this key belongs to Mount Holyoke College." Ronald took out his own key and handed it over.

   "Huh?" The administrator put on reading glasses and looked carefully.

"I didn't expect that before I retired, I could meet his real owner to retrieve the stored things." She put down her glasses and looked at Ronald, "Excuse me, if you don't have special requirements for privacy, Can I ask you about your relationship with the Jerome family? Their ancestors can be traced back to the Mayflower, and they were the first Englishmen to immigrate to the New World. They were also the first industrialists to settle in New Haven. They made the Jerome Mu brand watches are famous."

   "Uh, it's my father's relic. I never knew where it belonged. I went to Yale recently and found out that this kind of key belongs to the depository of the University of New England."

   "Okay", the administrator dispelled his curiosity for the time being, "You wait for me here for a while."

  Five minutes later, the old lady of the administrator loaded a big tin box on a cart and came out.

"The depository of the Jerome family was opened for the last time in 1939, and the deposit fee was prepaid for 50 years. According to the law, if the fee is not renewed after 50 years, Mann Lotus College has the right to open the box and take it out as a historical relic."

   Ronald's heart moved. In 1939, it happened to be a few years before his grandfather James died on the battlefield of World War II.

  The tin box was two feet square. Ronald opened it with a key. Inside were three separate file folders and a smaller wooden box.

   "Most of them are the relics and letters of the previous grandparents in your family. If you are lucky, you can pick up the suicide note and inherit a trust inheritance." The administrator joked with him and continued to sort out the books.

  Holding the things in the iron box, Ronald returned to the car, and he couldn't wait to open the time capsule that had been sealed for more than forty years in the car.

  The first folder was the thickest. Ronald opened it and saw that it contained personal portraits of women from the last century as models.

  Elizabeth A. Gilbert, and daughter Elizabeth Maude Jerome.

  The portrait is very well drawn, and it perfectly outlines the demure temperament of women in the last century and the different charm of each person.

   It seems that my ancestors were in the portrait painting business? On it was a portrait of the daughter of the family, Meg of New Haven, who was at that time a respectable figure. At that time, the blind dates of young girls were carried out with such portraits. The business of these two old ancestors must be very good.

  It seems that these two mother and daughter were the most famous portrait painters in New Haven at that time. Ronald flipped through the names on the bottom of the above portrait, and they were either aristocrats with European titles, or rising industrialists and daughters of bankers.

   Could it be that my talent for taking portraits is also due to my ancestors? Ronald thought to himself.

  The second document is the record of the daughter of the two painters, Elizabeth Maude Jerome (Elizabeth Maude Jerome).

  A scrapbook of the girlhood of this Elizabeth Maud Jerome. Portraits of her friends, portraits of her family, and sketches from Mount Holyoke College and Harvard Girls' School, complete with poems from her teenage years.

   Then there is the graduation autograph book, dated 1877-1881, consisting of signatures, well wishes, and advice written by friends, classmates, teachers, and principals from high school and college. Graduation speeches from classmates, accompanied by head portrait sketches, may be one of the best memories of this girlhood.

   Beneath the autograph book was a letter, which Ronald opened carefully.

   "From Manhattan, New York.

  My dear Elizabeth, I have looked up the whereabouts of young Gilbert's father on the basis of the name you provided.

  After leaving New Haven, your ex-husband, Mr. Lee, left New York again, went to work in a bank run by his Yale classmate’s family in San Francisco, and then went to Tennessee. Please forgive me for not being able to continue to track down his whereabouts.

  I'm so sorry about what happened to Gilbert Jr. I can't get in touch with his dad right now. Please let me know when you and Jenny will come to New York in your reply letter, and I will prepare the boat tickets to Hair Country for you in advance. Please grief.

  You are faithful, Frederick Dwight"

  Finally in the folder is a Gilbert Nelson Jerome obituary (incomplete) clipped from the New Haven Courier-Gazette.

  Gilbert Nelson Jerome, also known as Gilbert Vaille Lee, born 1889,

  Graduated from Yale University with a bachelor's degree in engineering and a Ph.D. student who won an award for excellence in French.

  Participated in World War I in 1917. He received pilot training and flew a Spad90 aircraft for the French Eighth Army. He repeatedly shot down enemy aircraft and won the title of ace. Near Bramont, France, shot down by the Germans in order to rescue the wingman.

   He was buried with military honors by the enemy at the German Army Cemetery near Bramont. His remains were moved to the American Army Cemetery in Argonne in 1919, and then returned in 1921 by his mother and sister to be reburied in New Haven.

  He is also a poet.

   His wife Maloline and son James, mother Elizabeth, and sister Jenny were by his side when he was buried.

   No wonder there is no admission record for Gilbert V. Lee at Yale. Ronald understood that because his great-grandfather's parents divorced, he lived with his mother, and the inheritance inherited by his mother, as well as the remuneration for painting portraits, provided him with a good education, which eventually allowed him to study at Yale University.

  He later changed his mother's surname to Yale, which was given the name of Gilbert Nelson Jerome. However, his son James restored Lee's old surname, and it has been passed down.

   Ronald opened the third folder.

   This material is dated from 1914 until about 1921. Includes yearbook, eulogy, and published biographies.

  The biography, "Lieutenant Gilbert Nelson Jerome," was written by his mother, Elizabeth Maud Jerome, and was privately printed in 1920.

  The book describes his childhood, education, artistic talent, active participation in the Boy Scouts of America and the YMCA, and served as the commander-in-chief of the Connecticut Boy Scouts.

   Military training and service during World War I, and death in combat. The book also includes some of his paintings and poems, and is illustrated with many photographs.

What follows are copies of pages from the Yale yearbook describing his college accomplishments and extracurricular activities, a copy of "Commemorating the Yale War Dead" published by the Yale War Memorial Committee, and a copy of Gilbert's A photo with the beloved Spad90 biplane.

  These two documents were attached to a letter from the Office of the University Secretary sent to his mother commemorating Jerome's life and war service.

   Followed by photos of various ages sent by his widow and son James. It stopped abruptly when James was about ten years old, and then there were only pictures of James playing alone at his grandma's house.

  Finally, a note from Gilbert's sister, Jeanne Jerome, in 1939.

"Mother's health is very bad. My younger brother's son, James, left a boy in London with Miss X. His name is Charles. I follow my mother's wishes and deposit these documents certifying the identity of my brother and nephew with me. Mount Holyoke College, his mother's alma mater. When James returns, he can use this to return Charles Jr. to the Jerome family."

"Tsk", Ronald thought that his father's lineage is a bit of a romantic and playful gene, either a portrait painter or a poet, whether his father divorced and ran away, or became a pilot who sacrificed for the country and left orphans and widowed mothers, or seduced famous ladies in private An illegitimate child was born.

   At the bottom is a small wooden box.

   Ronald opened the lid, and the documents inside were also yellowed ancient objects.

The first is a donation notice, which says that Elizabeth, the great-grandfather's mother, ordered a window glass with the Quaker logo and eight-pointed star pattern at Tiffany & Co. for her son who died in World War I, and donated it to New York City. Haven Quaker Church.

   "It's all the thoughts of the old grandmother Elizabeth in my family." Ronald was shocked, feeling how the old grandmother missed her son for decades.

   Ronald reached down again to see if there were any keys below.

  The tentacles were of a cloth texture. Ronald took it out and saw that it was an even older book. Wrapped in cloth, the paper has become yellowed and brittle.

"Huh..." Ronald blew on the cover. On the yellowed cloth cover, he could vaguely see the appearance of a child, holding a paper fan in one hand, wearing a melon cap, and vaguely still a child behind his head. The shape of a braid.

  Beside the child, there is also a rectangular sign in the shape of a water sign commonly used in Chinese restaurants.

   Above is the title of the book, "My Childhood in Huaguo (When IwasaboyinChina.

  The Chinese name of the book "Tangren Biography" is also written in Chinese characters under the water sign.

   Below is the author's name "YanPhouLee".

   "Could it be that my great-grandfather's father, the ancestor of this life, was a Chinese?"

  Ronald picked up the book and faced the dim light of dusk. It was published in Boston in 1887. The whole book is only more than a hundred pages, very thin.

  Carefully opened the cover, and on the title page was the portrait of the author.

   Sure enough, it was a handsome Chinese. Below the photo is his English name YanPhouLee. At the bottom is a line of words written in pen, which is still clear and indisputable after years.

   "To my favorite wife, Elizabeth." There is also a line of Chinese signed names below:

   "Li Enfu".

  The light was very dim, and Ronald couldn't read the fine print in the book. He carefully put the book back in its case, pulled on the handbrake, and drove back to New Haven.

  (end of this chapter)