Eulalie’s Sky

When I was a kid and old enough to realize I actually had a middle name, it was a very long time before I was comfortable sharing it with anyone. Kids are cruel, and the “I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours” game did not set well with me, being the very awkward and shy child that I was.

Because, while my friends’ middle names (and why do we have middle names, anyway?) were short and cute, like Ann and Jane and Beth, mine was unheard of, unpronounceable and French, no less! So, I would typically give the hint “It begins with an E” and let the games begin. First of all, there weren’t that many names beginning with “E”- Ellen, Elaine, Emily-kids could guess all day long and NEVER figure it out! Secondly, even if I divulged my middle name, the typical response was “WHAT?!?? no way, you’re making that up, how do you spell it?!” And so it was my well-guarded secret, shared only with my closest allies. But I never told my mother about my childhood angst because I was named after my beautiful and talented maternal godmother, my great-aunt Eulalie. (it’s pronounced you-la-lee).

She was a fashionista before it was a thing, all five foot nothing of her,

and what she lacked in stature she made up for in spunk and style.

According to my mom, when she was a small child in boarding school, the teachers would stand her on the lunch tables and she would sing and dance-a born entertainer!

What I remember most about her in my adolescent years was her fabulous spiky red hair, fishnet stockings, mini skirts and thoroughly modern style-even into her 80’s.

She would have been a star in today’s social-media-driven world. Aunt Lally, as we called her, was an amazing musician, playing both piano and organ professionally.

At every family gathering, there was always that moment when Lally sat down at the piano to play some jazz tunes, oftentimes accompanied by her sister Bernadette, a talented opera singer. So many fond memories…

So why am I sharing all of this with you now? Well, I would first like to think that I (and my friends-ahem…) are more mature now, and able to appreciate the name for what it is: a beautiful reminder of a wonderful wife and mother

who was a role model for my generation of women-fabulous, talented & sexy.

Secondly, in all of the years that I have carried my middle name, I have never once seen it in print, until recently, when a Google search (we didn’t have Google back when I was a kid. Heck, we didn’t even have blow dryers!) revealed that there is an 1845 poem by Edgar Allen Poe named Eulalie. And amazingly, a very short while ago, I spotted this on a blog that I follow,

What’s so interesting is that this beautiful shade of pale aqua-green milk paint called Eulalie’s Sky is one of my very favorite colors.

So now I am planning to use this color in some new pieces I am currently working on, leaving my own personal stamp. Last week, I drove out to Worcester to obtain my very first Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in my new favorite color, Eulalie’s Sky!

“Well-Spoken”. So perhaps the legacy my Aunt Eulalie left for me with her name was not her fabulous fashion sense (that’s for sure!) or her incredible musical talent, but the ability to communicate with all of you through the written word. To that end, I am eternally grateful that I was chosen to carry forward the beautiful name Eulalie.  Susan