Rant #2,045: (You Don't Have To) Paint Me a Picture

As I reported to you last week, I had a pretty busy weekend, although what we planned to do on Sunday--visit my father in law at the Veterans Home in Stony Brook--was scuttled because for this first time in a very long time, my son was sick.

He got up at his normal time, felt really bad, was sweating pretty badly, and he did not go to work. He slept past 3 p.m., and woke up completely refreshed, hungry and ready to go.

He appeared to be fine the rest of the day and night, so let's just hope it was "one of those things" many of us go through once or twice a year--where we feel like garbage--but it doesn't last very long at all.

Anyway, on Saturday, we had family over for a holiday party, and it went pretty well.

My Aunt Suzanne was there, my dad's sister, and among other things, she brought with her a curious and interesting photo which I had never seen before.

The black and white photo, she believes, was taken at then-Idlewide Airport, now Kennedy Airport, in Queens back in 1961 or so.

She believes it was taken when either she was leaving for, or coming home from, a trip to Israel when she was in her mid-to-late teens, like 17 years of age or so.

The photo doesn't show her, but shows my mother--in the dark glasses--on the left, and in the right foreground of the photo, my grandmother--my aunt's mom--holding both myself and my sister.

I have no idea at all who any of the other people are in the photo.

If the photo was taken in 1961, it means that my mother was 30 years of age, my sister maybe near two years of age, and her big brother was four years old.

My aunt mistakenly left the photo with us, I discovered it on the counter near our phone, and yes, I do have plans to return it to her, but in the meantime, I scanned it, and put it up on Facebook.

Old, black and white photos live on on the social networking site, and I put it up there, and got a pretty nice reaction.

Even if you don't know a soul in the photos, these black and white photos seem to have more character than the color photos, only because the black and white photos almost force you to look at who is in the photo, rather than being distracted by the color in those types of photos.

My grandmother is beaming, as she usually was. She had a tough life, but she absolutely adored her children and grandchildren, and me, being the first grandchild, well, she absolutely adored me.

She had a smile that could light up a pitch dark room, and you can see it in this photo--although you just know that my sister and I were a load to handle at this point in our lives.

Even years later, when Alzheimer's Disease ravaged her, and took away her bright smile, she still knew who I was, and managed that warm smile maybe for the last time in her life.

And her smile makes the photo for me, and it was nice to once again see my mom--still vibrant at 86 going on 87 in March--looking like Audrey Hepburn, who I believe she resembled at the time.

And those dark glasses--so cool!

It is funny how an old photo like this can conjure up such memories, but it reminded me how beautiful my mother was, and still is, and also reminded me of my grandmother, and what a great lady she was.

And my sister and I were hard to handle, but we were cute kids. I have no idea what type of outfit I am wearing, but with my short haircut, I looked kinda cool too.

My sister is my sister, and even at that age, she looked like she was not going to sit still for too long.

And that goes for me, too, and maybe that is why it looks like my grandmother has a bear hug around both of us.

As always, it was nice to see my aunt, still doing well and living in Manhattan.

And I love the fact that she shared this photo. It really made my day!