The following excerpt from 'Locksley Hall' by Alfred Lord Tennyson
embodies the ideals of my wonderful aunt Virginia Lastayo Riorden who died January 20th of 2012.
The pictures in this gallery are from her memorial ceremony in Williamstown, Massachusetts on June 16, 2012
attended by her friends and family.

"For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;

Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly bales;

Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain'd a ghastly dew
From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue;

Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing warm,
With the standards of the peoples plunging thro' the thunder-storm;

Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle-flags were furl'd
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world. "

---Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1835