Close to the beginning of the semester during class we talked about our names and the importance of names. This was to be an introduction to writing an ‘I Am’ poem to present to the students we would work with. Below is some of the things I talked about in class regarding my name.

My Name….

Ami with an 'I'. That 'I' means a lot to me. Much of my identity is tied up in that little vowel. My name was an invention from my mother. I am not named after anyone, nor is there a story behind the creative spelling or choosing of the name. That’s all there is to my name, but the names before me have a far more interesting story.

My Grandmother comes from good blood and bad blood. Her father was an outlaw all his life. He changed the family name three times to avoid the authorities. He came from outlaws. Jesse James is not a too distant cousin of mine. Her good blood comes from her mother. Her mother’s brothers were hero’s and spies during WWI. The two of them infiltrated the German officers in order to discover the horrible truth of what was happening with the Jewish prisoners. (Yes, WWI was also a time when the extermination of Jews was practiced.) One died for the cause, well he was murdered is more like it. He was captured, bound and placed in a barn and lit fire to. Her other uncle escaped. The two of them would take pictures as spies of important places or things and turn them into postcards. This way they could send back coded messages to her and her mother. From there her mother worked to get the information where it needed to go. The stories beghind her name is much more interesting then mine.

Other names in my family that carry stories is Donner. This is the Maden name of my grandmother on my fathers side of the family. He is the descendent  of the infamous Donner Party. Whether surviving the cold conditions got in the families blood or not, I cannot say, but my father has never been known to turn off the air conditioner before Halloween or turn on the heater before thanksgiving. Growing up our house was always very chilly.