gold

Today is my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. They are amazing and wonderful people. Despite the fact that I've known them for 40 years and that I love and admire them so much, I'm presently lacking the ability to adequately describe them here. It will probably take me another 40 years to fully articulate how much they mean to me.

The above is a family portrait from 1972. We had these pictures taken every year at Sullivan's Studio, and my Dad would use them as the basis for our Christmas cards. The woman in the middle is my great grandmother (whose first name, Corene, I used as my pen name). She lived with us for several years. A testament to my Mom who, while already raising five children and working, took on care of her elderly grandmother. I'm the little one in front sitting on a stool. That dress was dark green velvet with white lace. It was my favorite dress. I remember thinking that my sister, Cathy, looked very modern in her pant suit.

The below is a family portrait from 2004. It was taken the day after Christmas in an attempt to have all kids and grandkids present. Although we were successful in the gathering part, the less-than-spectacular Sears Portrait Studio did fairly bungle nearly every picture. You'll notice that my poor sister is missing a portion of her left ear. That was no Photoshop cropping disaster on my part. No, Sears managed to cut off portions of someone in every picture. This one isn't the most egregious example, either. In the portrait that includes kids' spouses and grandkids, my sister-in-law is missing fully half of her face. At least we got our money back. And, until we gather all 20 of us again, for now we have a version of the family portrait.

Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad. All the love in the world.