home in which Gorman and von Stade lived for almost a decade before moving to a property on the island's southeast waterfront. Von Stade became a grandmother in June 2010 when Jenny gave birth to the first of her two daughters, Charlotte Frederica. As of March 2019, the Gormans' tally of grandchildren numbered seven. Faith and philanthropy Von Stade adopted Roman Catholicism as a child, led to her faith by the influence of her convert maternal grandmother, instructed by the nuns and priests who presided over most of her schooling and attracted by the theatricality of Catholic ritual. She has remained a committed member of her church throughout her life, latterly as a regular worshipper at Alameda's Basilica of St Joseph. It is Catholicism which has provided her with her framework for interpreting the world, reconciled her to her experience of suffering and both inspired and guided her work as an artist and philanthropist. She summed up her credo in 2000: "We are all from God. And since we are from God, there must be ... no obstacle, really, between Him and us. I keep thinking that I have to put away anything that stands in the way of my ... vocation, which is singing and sharing music. ... It's the art form closest to prayer, and therefore to the journey toward God, precisely because it comes from a very deep point inside. Singingboth what we sing and how we sing itshows all the flaws, all the neediness of our humanity. And it can reveal all our best possibilities too." The charitable endeavours through which she has expressed her Christianity have mainly addressed social issues in the poorer districts of the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1992, she began attending dinners and auctions sponsored by Financial Aid for Catholic Education. It was at one of these that she met Carol Cole and David Barlow, who were setting up a refuge to nurture vulnerable mothers and children in a troubled part of Oakland. Operated in accordance with Rudolf Steiner's doctrine of Anthroposophy, the Sophia Project sheltered dozens of families from 1999 to 2014: von Stade served it as a fundraiser, as a member of its board of directors and occasionally as a gardener. She has spoken warmly of its residents, "women … who have no money or resources. They just keep getting up in the morning with that weight on their