A Brief History in Pictures

This past weekend, my father came over with the two albums of family photographs that he was able to acquire after his escape from Hungary in 1956...which is a story for another day. He sat with me over tea and patiently showed me each and every photograph, reliving the moments as if they were just yesterday. I find these moments with my dad both fascinating and heartbreaking. I have heard all of his stories time and again throughout my childhood, but the older my dad gets, the harder it is for me to see him so sad at the bitter memories of having his life and family literally torn apart by the invasion of Communist Russia....again, another story for another day.

In the meantime, I want to share some of the pictures from my father's albums.

1.My grandfather, Istvan Makay

2.My Aunt Eva, my father, and my grandmother Erszebet Makay.

3.My grandfather (on the left) with one of his assistants.

4.Our family's Coat of Arms.

5.My father's Aunt and Uncle, Margit and Kamillo Karpathy.

A Little Introduction...

I've been feeling compelled to share my father's story for some time. Being that I have always loved writing, it would have seemed fitting that I would've put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) a long time ago....and yet that isn't what happened.

There is something so intimidating to me about writing the memoirs and biography of someone so close to me when I've always been more of a creative writer, a purveyor of content on all things beauty and fashion related, and the irreverent voice of a fashion modeling blog. Yet here I am now....somewhere between holding my breath and white knuckling my way through the fear of messing this up.

My father is one of the most amazing, humble, kindest and most gracious men to ever have walked this earth. His story deserves nothing but the best of voices. I hope I can do him some justice in my meager attempts to be that voice. I also hope that by recording his amazing life story, I can preserve it for all of the generations that come after him. I am lucky to have this man as my father.

Everyone that has come into contact with him has fallen in love with him for his soft spoken and kind ways, most not even knowing that the kindly older gentleman once grew up in some of Hungary's most beautiful palaces, was privy to visits his own father had from some of history's greatest dignitaries, who was addressed as "Your Highness" since his birth, a man who was born into one of Hungary's oldest families steeped in nobility and royalty. Yes, that's my father....the Prince.