Forever Young
Oct. 21st, 2007 07:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogForty years ago today, my oldest sister was married.
I was all of seven at the time, and though I did do a respectable job as ring-bearer at our church earlier in the day, I'd been packed off while the grownups did their picture-run and the couple's reception. (Best I can recall, I was sent Home Alone at the age of seven, to a house full of gas-fired burners and matches and cigarettes. Things were different back then.)
Of the entourage actually in the photo, besides the bride and groom themselves, the only one I can recognize for sure is our other sister, on the bride's right. There was a Sheila and a Pierre in there, as well, but I couldn't pick them out of a lineup if you paid or interrogated me.
That marriage lasted into its twenty-first year (same as ours is now in) until Sandy's sad passing a few weeks before her anniversary in 1988. It produced two wonderful daughters, a home that always felt home-like no matter how dysfunctional we managed to make it, usually a furry feline companion to hang out with (and on one famous Thanksgiving, to feed virtually an entire stuffed leftover turkey to), and plenty of love.
I think I've been in that house all of twice since my sister died. I'm still unbelievably fond of my brother-in-law and of the family he begat. And to both of my sisters in this picture, both of whom, I'm quite sure, are reading this tonight, I can only say: Happy anniversary, Sandy.
I was all of seven at the time, and though I did do a respectable job as ring-bearer at our church earlier in the day, I'd been packed off while the grownups did their picture-run and the couple's reception. (Best I can recall, I was sent Home Alone at the age of seven, to a house full of gas-fired burners and matches and cigarettes. Things were different back then.)
Of the entourage actually in the photo, besides the bride and groom themselves, the only one I can recognize for sure is our other sister, on the bride's right. There was a Sheila and a Pierre in there, as well, but I couldn't pick them out of a lineup if you paid or interrogated me.
That marriage lasted into its twenty-first year (same as ours is now in) until Sandy's sad passing a few weeks before her anniversary in 1988. It produced two wonderful daughters, a home that always felt home-like no matter how dysfunctional we managed to make it, usually a furry feline companion to hang out with (and on one famous Thanksgiving, to feed virtually an entire stuffed leftover turkey to), and plenty of love.
I think I've been in that house all of twice since my sister died. I'm still unbelievably fond of my brother-in-law and of the family he begat. And to both of my sisters in this picture, both of whom, I'm quite sure, are reading this tonight, I can only say: Happy anniversary, Sandy.