The Family Photo

I have mixed emotions whenever I see this photo. On one hand it makes me happy to see the family I grew up with, smiling and happy and enjoying the day. It was a going away party for my sister Evelyn and her boyfriend Gus, who were moving to Spanaway, Washington. I believe it was in 1976.

On the other hands it saddens me. Not because both my father and my sister are gone, or my mother is now living in a home, though there is that. It saddens me because in all the years together as a family, this is the only photograph of the five of us together as a complete family. I don't know why. Nobody thought of it. I wasn't intentional, it just worked out that way.

It would not have happened at all had  my wife, with the camera in her hand, not said “Let's get one with all of you in it". So this is the photograph of my family and I for posterity. It was a great day.