Mom, I want to Hear Your Story

I received a journaling book from my son, Christian for Christmas, 2025 called:

I like typing better than hand writing and the book didn't allow for enough space for some answers and too much space in places where I didn't have an answer, so I am creating this blog along with writing my answers in the book.

My full name is Cecelia Christina Fajardo. Believe it or not, I didn't get the whole story behind my name until the weekend of my 62nd birthday party in 2017. The annual May birthday party was being held at Lana Nelson's ranch. Synchronicities play a large part of my life and the extreme diverse life experiences happening that weekend were the perfect example of how life lessons manifest to teach us that we are all in this together. There was the care free, annual May birthday party happening at Lana's, on the outskirts of Austin, with the friends I have had for over 50 years. Meanwhile, in downtown Austin, "The Jimmy LaFave Songwriter Rendezvous" was scheduled for the evening of May 18, at the Paramount Theater with a whole other group of songwriter friends that I have had since the 90's. This group of friends were in the midst of grieving the terminal illness of my dear friend Jimmy LaFave, who was dying of cancer. I am sort of known for doing slideshows for memorial services so Christine Albert invited me in on Jimmy's tribute show and/or celebration of his life at the Paramount. This connection was sort of about my birthday as well. I was born on May 12, 1955 and Jimmy LaFave was born on July 12, 1955 and Christine Albert was born on September 12, of 1955. Born 3 months apart from each other, Jimmy was in the middle sort of acting as the glue that held our '55 club together.

So my birthday had just passed and the night of the "Songwriter Rendezvous" had arrived. It was Jimmy's vision to have a slideshow of photos of his life as the audience entered the Paramount and to also have a slideshow of each individual performer playing music with Jimmy behind each performer on the huge Paramount stage during the live concert. I was sitting stage left behind the curtain, with my laptop playing each slideshow behind each of Jimmy's friends while they performed. Meanwhile I was noticing for the first time that there was a larger than life fresco of Saint Cecilia, painted on the ceiling just in front of the stage of The Paramount Theater. I discovered later that Saint Cecilia frescos are a part of the decor in many theaters because she is the patron saint of music.

Saint Cecilia Fresco
Paramount Theater
Austin, Texas

The weekend was filled with an extreme mixture of emotions due to the joy of being around all the friends celebrating Jimmy's life and all of the amazing music AND old friends and family at the annual May birthday for Ellen, Mary and me at Lana's. Ellen had crowned herself queen for the weekend and decided I was the princess because she said I was named after a princess. I looked at her in shock that she even knew this information. She continued to tell the story that my mom had told her about naming me after a German princess who lived in Amarillo. Mary said "Oh yeah, I remember that Princess. Her daughter, Kira was my sister Joan's best friend." Then our friend from Germany, Ruth Boggs said that wasn't possible. So she googled it and it was all true, but her name was Cecilie, not Cecilia. My mother babysat for Princess Cecile's daughter Kira before I was born and obviously liked Princess Cecile. Until then, I had no idea why my mother would name me after a German princess. Then I did a little research and discovered that there was a movie made about Princess Cecilie's husband, Clyde Harris, called "The Monuments Men" in 2014, directed by and starring George Clooney. Clyde Harris was a 1939 graduate from Oklahoma State in Stillwater with a degree in Interior Design. The plot thickens. Jimmy LaFave grew up in Stillwater, OK.

So, I was named after Saint Cecilia the patron saint of music and a German princess who lived in Amarillo when I was born. I vaguely remembered being told that I was named after a princess but I mentioned it to a teacher in elementary school and she made fun of me so I never mentioned it again, to anyone. Fast forward half a century and my mother and Ellen became very close in the last three years of my mother's life, after my father passed away. My mom told Ellen stories I had either forgotten or she had never told me. Now that I am older, I realize my mom was so busy raising a family when I was young, that she didn't have time to talk about her life. 

So, as a "Monuments Man," Clyde Harris helped the family of Prince Ludwig von Hesse-Darmstadt recover their family art, stolen by the Nazis during World War II. He then married the German Princess Cecile on June 21, 1949 at the Castle Burg Hohenzollern in Hechingen. So long story short, I was named after the patron saint of music AND a princess who was married to a man who helped to save art masterpieces that had been stolen by the Nazis during World War II. I feel so very honored.

I went by my first name, Cecelia, until high school and decided I liked Christina better for many reasons. One of them being that the song "Cecilia" by Simon & Garfunkel was popular in 1970 when I was in the 9th grade. Having boys singing the following lyrics to the song in the hallways of Horace Mann Jr High was extremely disheartening.

Making love in the afternoon with Cecilia
Up in my bedroom
I got up to wash my face
When I come back to bed, someone's taken my place

Paul Simon has said that the song "Cecilia" refers to Saint Cecilia the patron saint of music, with the lyrics personifying the frustration and eventual joy of fleeting inspiration and creative blocks. While the surface narrative seems about a fickle lover  in the lyrics "someone's taken my place", many interpret it as a plea to the saint for inspiration, which eventually returns with "Jubilation, she loves me again."

That was traumatic but the biggest reason I wanted the name change was that my family called me Cecil, as in Cecil B. DeMille. But friends in the Texas Panhandle pronounced it Ceeeeecil. I hated it. With a passion. So when I moved to New Mexico for my junior year of high school, I started a new life on many levels, using my middle name, Christina. Even to this day, my family hasn't fully grasped the name change so they call me CiCi or Cease. My Grandchildren call me CiCi and I love it.

Now I have come to terms with all of my names except Ceeeeecil. Now that I am 70, I actually LOVE having the name of the patron saint of music because God only knows how many musicians I have saved over the years, or at least helped with their marketing to help them make money! 

I was born May 12, 1955 at Saint Anthony's Hospital on Amarillo Blvd, Route 66, Amarillo Texas. 

I was the 4th of 5 children. Phillip, Gilbert and Nita were older than me and I had a younger brother Larry who passed away when he was 4.

1955 was a year of major cultural shifts. My parents moved from their 2 bedroom house on Magnolia to a 3 bedroom house across the street and bought a a new 1955 Chevy. I loved that car and the memories we made in it as a family. 

Gilbert, Nita, Phillip and Christina
In Front of Our 1955 Chevy

1955 was a pivotal year for Rock 'n' Roll, marking its breakthrough into mainstream pop culture. Disneyland opened in California and the civil rights movement began in Montgomery, Alabama when Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man. It marked a year long Montgomery Bus Boycott. 

The following famous people died around 1955.

Frida Kahlo died on July 13, 1954

Albert Einstein died on April 18, 1955

James Dean Died September 30, 1955

This where the book asks question that I don't have answers for like my first words, how old was I when I took my first steps. I don't know any of these answers. My baby book wasn't filled out.

We had a busy household at 1804 Magnolia, Amarillo, TX. My father worked as a furniture repairman and he was a coach for just about every team my brothers played sports on. Sometimes he would take me on house calls to go fix the corner of an expensive dining room table that had been damaged by movers. Now, looking back, I think Daddy took me to make the women feel comfortable about having a repairman in their house for sometimes over an hour. The housewives would always give me cookies and milk and knowing me, I was a chatter box of entertainment. My mom was mostly a housewife, but often had odd jobs babysitting or cleaning houses or offices to make extra money to make sure her children were the best dressed kids in the neighborhood. Phillip took steel guitar lessons, before I was old enough to remember and Nita was on the TV show called "Romper Room." I didn't attend any extra curricular activities. When I was about 6 or 7, I remember noticing that the neighborhood girls used to go to girl scout meetings at a neighbor's house. I went and knocked on the door to see if I could attend. The girl's mother less than friendly and sent me home. I have read that fourth-born children are thought to be more outgoing, independent and creative than their older siblings. I believe it to be true and there's a reason for it. Nobody had time for me. If I spoke up at all and asked for anything, my mother called me lloróna (cry baby) so eventually I just realized I would have to figure it out. I didn't have my own bike until I was in high school so I borrowed my next door neighbor's and taught myself how to ride it. I used to walk to the swimming pool alone and watch the older kids jump off the diving board and taught myself how to do it. I remember at one time my mother was going to nursing school. I was trying to button the back of my dress, getting ready to go to school and my dad said "Look at this poor little girl trying to dress herself. I have heard it said that sometimes parents love their grandchildren more than their children. My daughter Adriane certain enjoyed all the attention she received from my parents so I truly believe it has more to do with having the time to spend with the grandchildren. When I was a little girl all of my one on one attention was from the neighbor, Mrs McCollum. He children were in high school so she babysat me and spent time reading to me, teaching me how to make paper dolls and she gave me my best birthday party as a child.

I do have memories of my mom collecting green stamps form the grocery store and I put them in the green stamp books. She and I went on a city bus to Polk Street to the Green Stamp Store and I got a Smokey the Bear stuffed animal. I still have it. With all that being said, I had a great childhood. There was just a pecking order and I was at the bottom of the totem pole. We were always well fed, our house was immaculate, the boys shared a bedroom and Nita and I shared a bedroom. We went to church every Sunday at St Lawrence Catholic Church and we were always the best dressed children in any situation. 

The first 3 children who were born one right after the other, they were car pooled to private Catholic school. By the time I was old enough to go to school, I guess my parents felt like they had been there and done that, they were busy with Phillip's sports and all of that. So, I was sent to Robert E Lee public school and I walked to school. There was a small store across the street from the elementary school called Whitney's where we would sometimes get a bottled coke and a small Reese's peanut butter cup for the walk home. I have always felt a little lucky that I wasn't indoctrinated by the Catholic nuns. My siblings always seems to suffer a lot more Catholic shame and guilt than I did. So the first grade went well, then in September of 1962 I started the 2nd grade and on September 30, my little brother Larry was born. Doctors thought he wouldn't even make it home from the hospital but with my mom being the best infant nurse, he lived to be 4 1/2. Bless his heart, he had Water on the brain" a medical condition call hydrocephalus when cerebrospinal fluid builds up in the brain. These days they can do a surgery implanting a shunt. Back then it wasn't an option so he was never able to eat by himself, speak or even sit up. So we basically had an infant in the household for 4 1/2 years. From the time I was in the 2nd grade until the 6th grade. Then my mom was depressed for a long time after that. Fortunately, we lived in the same house on Magnolia in the Hamlet neighborhood my whole childhood. I knew all the the kids on every block. I used to walk to swimming pool at Thompson Park every day in the summers. There were lifegaurds on duty so I was able to teach myself how to swim by watching the older kids dive off of the diving boards and then hold my breath underwater to see how they got to shallow water. I also taught myself how to ride a bike. The family next door consisted of Mr and Mrs Waller and their 2 boys Steve and Mark. Steve and I were born just a day apart. I used to go over there and borrow his bike and taught myself how to ride it.My dad bought me a 10 speed when I was 17, but that's a whole other story.