Barbara Bird: homage to a great woman who gave me her name

I never liked my name. No one else I knew was named Barbara. It's an 'old ladies' name. I wanted a cool, modern, popular name like my friends. There were never 2 Barbaras on the soccer team or in art class. It made me feel different. Yet Barbara is not an unusual name. I just never liked it, I kind of resented it. My parents told me that my grandmother insisted I was named after her, so I always saw my name as having been forced upon me by the overbearing mother-in-law who couldn't let things be.

I certainly didn't resent my grandmother, not in the least, I just didn't love being called Barbara. My grandmother loved having a namesake though, and I was her favorite. I imagine my siblings resented this a bit, but "Pittsburgh Grandma" invited me (and me alone) to spend weeks with her in the summer. She would take me out to dinner (where I would always order a grilled cheese if I could, and a vanilla milkshake if I was feeling particularly spunky- grandma would sometimes order it for me even if I didn't want it!). She loved dressing me up to go out with her friends, teaching me manners, giving me errands when I accompanied her to work. I think I was the daughter she never had.

Barbara Elisabeth (Orman) Bird was a strong-willed woman. Her family and friends called her Bessie. Her parents came to the US from Lithuania- Her mother arrived at the age of 16, so she and her brother and sisters grew up speaking Lithuanian at home. Her father was well-educated and they say he spoke several languages. My grandmother's childhood was spent in the company homes of the coal mine her father worked in alongside many other Lithuanian immigrants.

She insisted on learning to drive, a move of independence that few women made at that time. It was a good thing, since her husband died when my dad was only 7. She got her real estate license and went to work, eventually opening her own business, "Bird Agency", and she and was well-known as the first woman in Pittsburgh to be president of the Multi-List.

She was very involved with the Lithuanian club: she was at one time president of the International Clubs and was instrumental in the founding of the Lithuanian room. She brought linens back from Lithuania to decorate the room. I remember attending Lithuanian language classes at the University of Pittsburgh with her in that room.

When I was 13, they discovered my grandmother had a brain tumor. From the hospital, she sent gifts to my brothers and sisters (toys)- Grandma Bird sent me a map of the brain and a chart of the human bones. She insisted I would be a doctor. Those were my last gifts from my grandmother, and I am proud to keep this memory of her.

I've never particularly liked my name, but I am proud to share a name with this great woman. I am Barbara Bird.