Virginia's father, Kenneth
Neel Critchfield

Back in Wendell for her third Christmas in 1913, Virginia was delighted by the large, lovely Christmas tree in her home, decorated with trimmings sent by Grandfather Higley. Virginia adored the holiday tree and, as Jessica noted, kept circling around it, exclaiming, "Well-sake!"

Then, on September 2, 1914, Virginia, not quite three years old, took a train ride with her mother, arriving in Chicago on September 5, where they spent two days shopping. Virginia was treated to her first elevator ride and a luncheon at Mandel's Tea Room. While in Glen Ellyn visiting her maternal grandparents again, Virginia, her mother, and Grandmother Higley took the train to Ohio on September 18. After arriving in Langsville, they visited Cora Higley's childhood home, a large farmhouse, and met innumerable great aunts, great uncles, cousins, and even eighty-two-year-old Great-grandfather Higley at the original Higley homestead, a farmhouse and barn nearly a hundred years old. While in Langsville, Virginia also attended her first Sunday school service at Wesley Chapel, the same small church where her Grandmother Cora, Great-grandmother Van Zandt, and Great-great- grandmother Eakin had each attended their first Sunday school services. Virginia, Jessica, and Cora, three generations of Higley women, returned to Glen Ellyn on October 7.

Virginia's mother,
Jessica Higley Critchfield

Additional excursions for Virginia included a trip to Lincoln Park in Chicago during August 1917 and a trip that same month to Madison, Wisconsin, to see her father, who was temporarily employed there. The number and variety of Virginia's childhood travels with her mother and grandmother point again to the untrammeled spirit of these women, an intrepid zest for adventure tempered by a respect for family and tradition that Virginia would exemplify in her own adult life.

Virginia's sister, Carol Ann Critchfield, was born on November 28, 1915, marking the beginning of a lifelong, deeply affectionate sibling companionship. Less than two years later, in September 1917, when Virginia was five years old, she began attending Duane Street School in Glen Ellyn, entering the same building and sitting in the identical classroom as her mother had at that same age. During Virginia and Carol's formative years, spanning two world wars and the Great Depression, economic constraints called for a spirit of playful innovation and creative invention. From a young age, Virginia possessed an ingenious capacity for inventing dramatic games and theatrical stories, while Carol,already a budding artist, used the cut-open, blank insides of cereal boxes to practice her drawings. With very little in the way of material goods or toys, the girls made up marvelous games and activities. The emotional stability offered by their loving parents and grandparents, frequent visits with extended family members, and traditionally observed celebrations of holidays and birthdays also provided Virginia and Carol with ample emotional comfort and security to buffer them from harsher economic realities.

Carol Ann and Virginia Critchfield

When the family later moved from Glen Ellyn to St. Louis, Missouri, to a house at 4014 Connecticut Street, Virginia, then eleven or twelve years old, attended a new school. A collection of letters from Cora Higley to her granddaughter between 1923 and 1929, Virginia's adolescent years, addresses among other subjects Virginia's apparent recalcitrance about school and her lessons. This fragile packet of handwritten letters, saved by Virginia for over seventy years, reveals her grandmother's affectionate mentorship, which firmly outlined the Christian Science teachings and lessons Cora felt were important for her adolescent granddaughter.

To Virginia, My Darling Virginia,

Was so glad to get your letter, very sorry about the English. I will do my best. I think first of all, declare there is just one teacher and see "God." As long as you resent or feel angry with your teacher, you will not be able to lose the emotions. Read Science and Health, page 45, line 19.

Remember God's idea, in its perfect expression, is in your consciousness, and all you have to do is to acknowledge it. Also page 17. "Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections." This is made your own. Keep it in mind until the spiritual sense comes to you. That Truth will free you from the thoughts of yourself or anybody as person. English is only a word. So it is God's idea in your consciousness and is unfolding according to God.

Lots of love, Grandma

For Virginia, My Dear Virginia,

I will work for you and you know how glad Gramma always is when you turn to Christian Science and ask me to help you.

Now dear, keep declaring love. "God is all and God is Love." Mentally see the word Love, and then your mind will be more receptive to the Truth I declare. The ninety-first Psalm is splendid, and if you will commit it to memory, it will help you very much. Read some in Science and Health every day, beginning at the first of the book. Subject on Prayer. You see a treatment is prayer, and so reading that is the same as a treatment. Write to me every few days, especially if anything new comes up. But don't be afraid.

Virginia, keep declaring quite often, "I reflect intelligence." Don't think of yourself, but see the word "intelligence." Keep your mind filled with Truth and Love, and you will be well soon. I must close now and go upstairs to work. It would certainly be grand if you could go to a Christian Science church. I will look for the photoplay tomorrow and send it. Am looking forward to Christmas.

Lovingly, Gramma