ramona, the character

our daughter ramona was not named after any fictional literary character. however, there are two literary ramonas worth mentioning.

the first, likely most well-known, is ramona quimby, beverly cleary's lovable 8 year old girl. ramona quimby, age 8 is a memorable read from my childhood.


perhaps less well-known to my generation, and certainly not for children, is ramona the orphan from helen hunt jackson's 1884 novel ramona. our friends matt and lia found a copy of the 1970 edition of the "classic romantic bestseller" and bought it for us. they're the best.

from the back cover...
"Ramona blushed as the handsome young Indian Alessandro looked upon her with favor. A great, star-crossed love was born. But the adopted daughter of Senora Moreno was defying the custom of her people. Her forbidden love would drive her from place to place with Alessandro until tragedy would strike and Ramona would at last come to an understanding of herself."

whoa. heavy stuff.

and, of course, there's our favorite little character, ramona staple.