Corliss (is adopted)

As evidenced by her name, someone in her lineage had invented the steam engine that supplied power for the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.   For Corliss, steam was just the nuisance that caused her hair to curl, but she loved numbers and calculations as much as that long-ago ancestor.   She funded her college years doing statistical analysis for the university, eventually obtaining a doctorate in bio-statistics and a job researching survivability in snake bite victims. Luckily, that did not require that she handle (or even see) snakes, as a childhood encounter left her with a deathly fear of anything slithery.

PJH 2016

Fara (is adopted)

She grew up on the road, daughter of an Air Force mom and an internet developer dad.  So no one was surprised when she bought an RV with her college graduation money and began a cross-country sojourn to find herself. Her friends thought she would always have “the world on a string”, but 10 years and 200,000 miles later, she settled into a little North Carolina coastal town and started a digital art business with the photos from her travels.  She never imagined living in one place for more than a year, but her fisherman partner/lover/best friend has - so far - kept her happily anchored for five years …. and counting…

Polaris (is adopted)

Thank goodness that few people know that she is named for the star at the tip of the tail of the Little Bear constellation. She always imagined that her grandfather – the amateur astronomer – named her, probably influenced by her being the youngest of 8 and names getting harder to find.  If her comedic mystery-writing best friend thought he could get away with teasing her about being a “tail wagger”, he would try, but her quick temper and jujitsu black belt dampens his jesting – most days!   Trained as a cinematic cosmetologist with a specialization in alien life form make-up, her work life revolves around the latest sci-fi thriller, taking her to remote places that look like (and sometimes smell like) alien planets.

(PJH 2016)

Vanessa

Her friends thought her training as a lepidopterist was frivolous until she discovered, with the help of a friendly textile chemist, that butterfly wings could be synthesized to create an almost invisible, stronger-than-Kevlar fabric.   The royalties from this discovery enabled her to get her pilot’s license, buy a Twin Cessna, and travel the world photographing butterflies….. and tasting local varieties of gin.

(a PJH story)

Zaryna (is adopted)

You might think her tame, given her career as a designer of Barbie costumes, but outside of work, she loves to free climb the cliffs around her Colorado home.   Her career came about as she was recovering from injuries after falling 50 feet in one of her earliest untethered jaunts.  While lying in bed, she started to envision sports-oriented costumes for the dolls she had loved as a child.  The sketches she sent to Mattel garnered her a lifetime spot in the hearts of many little girls who were tired of too many poufy sleeves and wide patent leather belts.

(a PJH story)

Deirdre-Anne

She is still famous for asking “Have we gone on like this long enough?” whenever the conversation started to be boring to her.   Oftentimes, it was just the right question to cause the dialogue to go off in a more interesting direction.   But, it didn’t work the night she asked it of the father of her soon-to-be groom.  In fact, things went so badly from there that the cathedral wedding was never conducted. Luckily for her, eloping was just a grand idea, and they lived happily – albeit without his family – for a good long while.   Now she remembers those good days while hoping that she lives long enough to meet an alien from another planet.  After all, whenever she needed to change the topic of conversation, she could always count on wishing for aliens to create lively repartee.

(a PJH story)

Jovita (is adopted)

When your mother is a Latin scholar who waited until age 40 to have a child, it’s not surprising that your name is a Latin word for “Happy”.   Luckily for all involved, her nature matched her name.   Always smiling, albeit sometimes with her mouth but not her eyes, she followed in her mother’s footsteps and became a professor of Greek mythology.  Once retired she moved to the island of Milos where she met a widowed restaurateur and now spends her days welcoming the occasional guest and forging custom daggers in her backyard blacksmith's shop.

(a PJH story)