Hump day . . .

“Encouragement is the oxygen of the soul.” —George M. Adams

An autistic opera singer -



Thinking of music today _ I was looking at my old files - gee I have so many thoughts and songs and stories etc. . . . I could write forever. lol

This song kind of felt right to play for me today -

Life's a Dance that you learn as you go -



Isn't that the truth?



Happy Birthday Martha Washington - Wikipedia

Born Martha Dandridge on her parents' plantation Chestnut Grove on June 2, 1731.

Martha was the eldest of three brothers and five sisters. Her younger illegitimate half-sister was a slave, Ann Dandridge Costin, who was one-quarter African, one-quarter Cherokee Indian, and half-white; there is further evidence of an illegitimate half-brother Ralph Dandridge, who was probably white.

At the age of 18, she married Daniel Parke Custis, a rich planter two decades her senior. They lived at White House Plantation on the south shore of the Pamunkey River, a few miles upriver from Chestnut Grove. She had four children by Custis. A son and a daughter, Daniel and Frances, who died in childhood, but two other children, John Parke Custis and Martha Parke Custis survived to young adulthood. Daniel Custis' death in 1757 left Martha a rich widow, with independent control over a dower inheritance for her lifetime and trustee control over the inheritance of her minor children.

Martha Dandridge Custis, aged 27, and George Washington, aged nearly 27, married on January 6, 1759 at her estate, known as the White House, on the Pamunkey River northwest of Williamsburg. It seems likely that Washington had known Martha and her husband for some time. It is not known why Washington had waited until such a relatively advanced age for his first marriage. In March 1758 he visited her at White House twice; the second time he came away with either an engagement of marriage or at least her promise to think about his proposal.

Their wedding was a grand affair. The groom appeared in a suit of blue and silver with red trimming and gold knee buckles; the bride wore purple silk shoes with spangled buckles. After the Reverend Peter Mossum pronounced them man and wife, the couple honeymooned at White House for several weeks before setting up housekeeping at Washington's Mount Vernon. Their marriage appears to have been a solid one, untroubled by infidelity or clash of temperament.

“I've learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.” —Martha Washington