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Occupants of the row of seats reserved for family and friends when the Judiciary Committee begins Thomas' confirmation hearings this September could constitute a new American Gothic -- doting nuns in their 70s; a mother who works as a receptionist and nurse's aide at a hospital; the father who has rarely been seen since he abandoned the family; a sister, whom Thomas once criticized for relying on welfare and who now works as a cook at a hospital; his second wife, Virginia Lamp Thomas, of the Labor Department, who made her reputation in Washington fighting against comparable-worth legislation that would have required equal pay for women. There may be an empty symbolic seat for Myers Anderson, who died eight years ago. Thomas once thought his grandfather had "too high expectations." But Anderson may have been the only person who could imagine how high his grandson would climb.