Rachel’s mother, Martha, grew up in Daly City, a city just south of San Francisco where her parents retired after her father’s career in the military. At about age fifteen, Martha began to hang out in Berkeley on weekends, where she met Rachel’s father Richard. Martha was nineteen when she had Rachel.
Photographer Nacio Jan Brown took this photo of Martha at Caffé Mediterraneum (often just known as the Med), a historic cafe that, for many decades, was at the center of the scene around the 2400 block of Telegraph Avenue. In his notes, Brown wrote of this photograph: “This was also taken in the Med, at the front table. The street runs north-south and she is facing west, and in the afternoon the light bounces off the street up under the awning into the Med. That’s where the nice quality of light on her face comes from.”