Mothers And Daughters

The mother and daughter relax on a cushy sofa, laughing quietly as they speak of their unusual yet utterly normal life together. "Sometimes I get a little frustrated [with you], don't I, Talynn?" the mom asks. "Yes, but we always work it out," the 9-year-old replies, leaping onto Traci Lucien and applying a huge hug. "Nobody's taking my Mommy. She's tooken. We're together forever!" Talynn exclaims. It's an especially tender moment, considering the two met just two years ago. That was when Lucien, a single professional who was then 49, adopted Talynn (pronounced Tay-LINN )

Mothers and daughters will discuss body image, self-esteem and the pressures on middle-school girls to conform to media images and peer pressure in a program at the Miller branch library, to be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Jan. 24. "Family Communication Night: How Do I Look? A Mother-Daughter Workshop on Body Image and the Pressure to be thin, `Hot,' and Perfect," will include a free dinner. The program, to be led by Lisa Morrell, adolescent counselor and founder of Health Integration, is designed for youth ages 11 to 15 and their parents.

Sabina Waldman consulted a priest before opening her shop, Sabina & Daughter, in a former convent in Fells Point. "We didn't want to be sacrilegious," she says.No problem, said the priest, so now she and daughter Samantha keep shop in a large room that was once a chapel. There, with a reverence for the old and a love for whimsy, they show off the most beautiful objects of the 1860s to the 1950s.A ceramic angel sits on the ledge of a Gothic window and watches over the former sanctuary, while the Waldmans focus on art deco, art nouveau and mission style -- mixed with some Victorian and Empire -- furniture and accessories.

A mother and her 13-year-old daughter were slain and another daughter, 10, critically injured by a killer who bludgeoned and stabbed them in their Reservoir Hill apartment, Baltimore police said.Cynthia D. Gilliam, 30, and her daughters, Donnette D. Smith, 13, and Jacqueline D. Parker, 10, were attacked Tuesday night or yesterday morning in their basement apartment in the Georgian Court complex, police said.A cousin of Ms. Gilliam went to visit the family just before 9 a.m. yesterday and entered after finding the door ajar.

The Light of Evening Edna O'Brien Houghton Mifflin / 304 pages / $25 Veteran novelist Edna O'Brien, the author of 20 volumes of fiction and an Irish expatriate living in London for more than 40 years, has been called one of the greatest writers in the English-speaking world. Her latest and most complex novel yet, The Light of Evening, proves that such lavish praise is indeed justified. O'Brien is a writer whose work only gets better and richer as she ages. O'Brien's literary interests have always been far-ranging; however, the decades of her expatriation have not diminished her focus, which has remained implacably Ireland, her most defining influence.

Continuing their dream of living on a working farm, a mother and daughter run a 60-acre farm in Hydes dedicated to Guernsey cows, culinary herbs and hands-on education for children. Hanne Chason, 62, and her daughter, Jo-Ann Chason, 35, who is a horticulturist, do most of the farm work, rent the grounds for social events and give school tours in spring and fall. They grow plants in the winter in a greenhouse. ROHA Farm, named after Ron and Hanne Chason, overlooks Long Green Valley. The Chasons and their four daughters were living on 7 acres in Parkville when the old Kress Dairy Farm went to auction in 1989.

Having a mother who is an educator brought Jennifer Scandora to teaching in a roundabout way. After earning an undergraduate degree in technical theater, Scandora tried a couple of different jobs, but her thoughts always returned to the classroom. Finally, she enrolled at Goucher College in Towson, obtained a master's degree, and got a teaching job. Scandora says her mother never once said "`I told you so.' She knew I needed to be a teacher because it was a natural option," said Scandora, 31, of Reisterstown.

"Will I ever get to retire?" moans Kelly Johnston-Chase. It sure doesn't look like it - at least not so long as her mother is out there sharing the field with her as players on the Litigators, a team that competes in the Women's Soccer Association of Columbia's A league. "My mother is one of the fastest players on the team," says Johnston-Chase of Hanover. "When I watch her, I feel like I have to keep playing as long as she does. I'll never be able to keep up her pace. "No, seriously, though," Johnston-Chase adds, "I am proud of her."

This year's Baltimore County Woman of the Year and Young Woman of the Year have a lot in common: They are both committed to people with disabilities, they both donate hours of volunteer time -- and they both have the same last name. For the first time in their 21-year history, the awards have been given to a mother and daughter: Donna Reihl, 51, director of the Community College of Baltimore County's satellite branch in Owings Mills, and Sara Reihl, a senior at Parkville High School. The awards recognize those who have made significant contributions to women and families.