Naming Ivan Giordan Radman

Ivan school picture. He is one to right of pole in a white shirt. You can recognize the broad forehead

As told by his mother, Natalia:
Natalia (his mother) had chosen the name Giordan (not Giordano, Italian version) for her new baby and sent her husband to register the new baby, which had to be done within 3 days of the baby's birth.
Ivan's Dad had to walk 7 km to Porec and by the time he got there he had forgotten the name his wife had told him so he just chose a name and registered the baby with that name.  When he returned home he told his wife what had happened and that the baby was registered with the name Renato. His youngest sister Maria who at the time was unmarried and still lived at home, said "no he can't be called that, he'll be teased" as there was a popular song at the time (rena, rena according to Natalia). Maria suggested to name him Gianni... a good plain name. So essentially Ivan was named by his aunt Maria. The slavic version of Gianni was Ivan, which is when Dad used when he changed his name to Ivan in displaced persons camp. He added Giordan as a middle name.
However, Dad told the story how on his first day of school, he was sent off to a school where they spoke a language he neither spoke nor understood. The teacher then called him Renato and told him to remember his name. It was news to him as up until then he thought his name was Gianni!
I can remember when we travelled to Italy and Yugoslavia that everyone who knew Dad called him Gianni and his mother, Natalia always called him Gianni.

School attended by Ivan Giordan Radman. Now converted into flats. The red star on monument is of those lost at war.

Quiet Week

We went to see Wicked over the weekend. It was good fun to have the Saturday completely free.
We drove down in the morning, walked around Paddington market on Oxford Street..... I could only think all the girls would love the street as there lots of little designer stores to browse.
Sydney has many markets, but Paddington focuses on local artisans and it is interesting to see.


The rest of the week has been quite slow (for me) but Dad seems always to be busy. We had a farewell for the Roberts on Monday night and as we share an office with them, we will especially miss them.
We loved all the photos of Halloween. They gave us so much pleasure to see the kids in costume and to hear about the various stories of activities. They all look so good, beautiful and handsome,everyone of them. Loved all the adult costumes too.... creative, crazy, unique. Thanks for including us, we look at your pics over and over.
We continue to meet people who we have connections with the family on both sides of the pond. There are some more unusual than others.... for instance, one young guy this week from SLC visiting his senior missionary parents recognized that we had sat in a meeting together at Key Bank in SLC as Jordan and I organized nana's investments. Rebecca's Dad's cousin is on a senior mission here with her husband and we have had quite a bit to do with them as they try to help a struggling branch to ramp up for family history work. Then we have been fortunate to get various messages and hellos from aussies we knew more than thirty years ago.
We anxiously await the birth of new little Smylie in Colorado Springs this week. So excited :)
Much love...

Yet another group photo!