My father's aunt (his father's youngest brother's wife) died last week, the last of that generation. My dad's cousins sent a giant envelope full of family photos and we looked over them last night. They were mostly taken by my grandparents, and many are annotated on the back.
A poignant touch - my grandmother labels herself simply as "Fatty" in some of the ones that include her. (I guess I come by self-deprecation and body image issues honestly enough, then.)
My grandfather was one of eight children, fairly spread out in age, and my father doesn't really know or keep up with his cousins much. This makes the photos all the more delightful - that they took the time to sort and send them. One of my favorite ones (unlabeled) was what I think is my grandfather's whole family. I recognize his father, whose portrait hangs over my bureau, but I can't tell which of the boys is my grandfather. Plus, there are only seven kids, so I don't know if the portrait was taken after one of the oldest boys had died, or whether Uncle F. hadn't yet been born. Unfortunately, I don't think Dad's eyesight is good enough to sort it all out - the photos are small and faded.
Aunt G. was 94, so that's Dad's new benchmark. His mother was 94 or 95 when she died. We kidded him a little - "Seven more years!" He professes not to want that much time, and he talked last week about funeral plans, so obviously this topic is something he's thinking about a lot.
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I think he has been "thinking" about many other things BECAUSE the new Digital Cable TV set-up has been too confusing for the both of them! Now that I tweaked the right thing-a-ma-bob (and literally HID the old controller) I think he will be more like his old self again. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd truth be told... he was the one who said fornlornly "Well, I guess that means I'll be here 7 more years - hurumph"