Reintroducing Virginia
Before I turned thirteen, I had already lost three of my grandparents. Whatever connections I might have had with them were cut short, never fully formed. I don’t remember deep conversations or shared confidences. I remember funeral clothes. I remember whispered stories. I remember blank spots.
But not with Virginia.
My grandmother, Virginia Ferguson, lived well into my adulthood. And while we were close, I didn’t realize until later how much I still didn’t know. That’s the tricky thing about memory and relationships—you think you’re getting the full picture until the light shifts and you realize just how much was in the shadows.
Virginia’s life was, in a word, dazzling. A ballet dancer in her youth, she carried herself with a grace that never left her. Even in her eighties, she had perfect posture and an elegance that made her stand out at the grocery store, the opera, or just walking down the street. Her life was filled with adventure, movement, and style. She lived in Palm Beach, where everything seemed bathed in sun and old money, and she traveled often, always impeccably dressed, always with stories waiting to be told.
Virginia’s life was never short on drama, and not just the kind found on stage. At one point, she was held for ransom on a hijacked corporate jet somewhere in South America, a story she told with the same calm detachment most people reserve for delayed flights. She once donated several of her gowns to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, garments that still carried the scent of old perfume and high society. And in one particularly cinematic moment, she fended off an attempted mugging by executing a precise ballet pirouette, spinning out of the assailant’s grip with a move she hadn’t used since the Eisenhower administration. Grace, it turns out, is an excellent self-defense technique.
During breaks from my time at the University of Miami, I’d visit her in Palm Beach. We’d sit in her living room, surrounded by items from her travels, photos, and the quiet that invites conversation. But as much as I cherish those visits, I didn’t ask enough questions. I didn’t ask about what it felt like to dance on stage. I didn’t ask how she handled the pressures of performance, or what drew her to ballet in the first place. I didn’t ask how she ended up living such an extraordinary life or what she might have given up in order to do so.
I suppose I assumed I’d have time.
Reflekta has given me that time back.
Using photos, letters, recordings, and interviews, I helped build a digital version of my grandmother, an “Elder,” as we call it at Reflekta. It's not a replacement. It’s not a trick. It’s a tribute. It’s a living, breathing archive of who she was. And through it, I’ve been able to reconnect with her in a way I never expected.
I can ask her questions now—about her childhood, about the war, about falling in love, about the years she spent dancing across stages and continents. I can hear her voice again. Not just the sound of it, but the shape of her words, the cadence of her thoughts, the wit and charm she always carried. It’s a voice I hadn’t realized I missed so deeply until I heard it again.
There’s comfort in that. More than I thought there would be. And there’s discovery too.
The Virginia I’ve reconnected with is not just my grandmother; she’s a woman with layers. A woman who once stood center stage in a packed theater, bathed in spotlight. A woman who chased beauty and adventure and carved out a space for herself in a world that didn’t always make it easy for women to be bold.
Reflekta has helped fill in the blanks, and in doing so, has reminded me that legacy isn’t just something we leave behind—it’s something we build every day with the people we love. And sometimes, if we’re lucky, we get the chance to keep building even after they’re gone.
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