Once, When Discussing Portraits Of Her Children With A Visiting Artist, The Empress Declared It Is Anastasia

Once, when discussing portraits of her children with a visiting artist, the Empress declared “It is Anastasia who will give you trouble.”

I imagine this happened frequently 

women’s history meme: tragic women [1/5] :: Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia

Alix Viktoria Helene Luise Beatrix (6 June 1872 in Darmstadt - 17 July 1918 in Yekaterinburg)

daughter of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and Alice of the United Kingdom

wife of Nicholas II of Russia

mother of Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexei

“All is in God’s will. The deeper you look, the more you understand that this is so. All sorrows are sent us to free us from our sins or as a test of our faith, an example to others. It requires good food to make plants grow properly and the gardener, walking through His garden, wants to be pleased with His flowers. If they do not grow properly, he takes His pruning knife, and cuts, waiting for the sunshine to coax them into growth again”

i think the thing that sticks out to me about cats in hogwarts is that we have no idea where they go when their owners are studying. there’s an owlry, but no cattery. 

do they just wander the corridors? do they disrupt lessons? are there always at least six sitting in front of the fireplace in the great hall?

Grand Duchesses Anastasia and Maria, 1904

“It [whooping cough] speedily spread to the nurseries and to the four children. The Russian nurse and I contracted it. I had told the children that they were to be most careful not to cough on anyone, or that person might take the disease from them, and they were very obedient.

One day the little Grand Duchess Anastasie was sitting on my lap, coughing and choking away, when the Grand Duchess Marie came up to her and putting her face close up to her said, ‘Baby, darling, cough on me.’ Greatly amazed, I asked her what she meant, and the dear child said, ‘I am so sorry to see my dear little sister so ill, and I thought if I could take it from her she would be better.’ Was it not touching?”

- Margaretta Eagar