What a treasure!

I have good times and I have had some bad times. The last experiences of my biological father's life have sort of led me to dwell on the bad more than the good... Well, his sister sent a computer disc to me this past week that was filled with scanned images of pictures taken throughout their parents' lives. I was so excited to receive this disc yesterday that I immediately downloaded it to my computer and I have already spent a few hours looking through it and touching up a few of the images on Photoshop Elements. My brother and other miscellaneous cousins may scoff, but I sincerely think that this disc is a treasure.

Here is one of the pictures that I am MOST excited about:



This is a picture of my biological father's biological father with my grandmother. From what I understand, he married her when she was a young teenager. They had four children together, the youngest of whom was my father. No one will tell me the story of what happened next; to be honest, I don't know if anyone living really knows -- all I have been told is that they just wouldn't talk about it... Well, he went into the service in World War II and the next thing I know is that he didn't return to my grandmother, or he returned but they were not together for very long.

I have some good memories of my father's mother, but I seem to recall that she had a scowl on her face most of the time. (Who would blame her, living with the abusive man that she married after my grandfather?!?) This picture (and a few others) proves to me that despite all the negativity and "Well hells!", she truly was a beautiful woman.

I met my biological grandfather one time in my life; when I was 16. On one of the very RARE moments of semi-trust, my mother let me go on a trip with my biological father, his wife (whom he committed adultery with prior to my parents' divorce), and her child to Arizona, where my grandfather lived. Up until that point, the only contact I had with him was when he sent big, manila envelopes for my birthdays. These envelopes contained knitted slippers with big puff balls -- usually in any color combo you couldn't imagine -- and they had been knitted with care by him. (He had very nice, box-like handwriting...) It was a great trip and I will be forever grateful that I had the opportunity to go.

According to my mom, she had never seen a picture of my grandfather when he was a young man. She said that he was 6' 6" tall -- my dad was slightly shorter. As you can see, he was a very tall man...

Another favorite photograph from this disc is this one:



This is a picture of my biological father when he was a teenager. I don't have a lot of pictures of my dad when he was younger, so you can only begin to imagine how touched I was by seeing these pictures. I remember my dad as being a very big man. I am not really certain how much he weighed, but he was tall and had a very large skeleton. Along with the large skeleton, he carried a lot of weight. I remember the time he told me that he was called "Slim" when he was in high school and college, and I always used to laugh at the prospect. Well -- this picture is proof of that! According to this picture, and a few others, he looked a bit "gangly", despite being handsome. I will never forget how BIG his hands were -- he told me once that his second wife had to buy a size 18 wedding band. I can remember holding hands with him when I was a little child and it seemed as if they engulfed mine.

It was so nice to see him smile in these pictures -- with what appears to be a sincere smile. I remember my dad as being a big, lonely, and sad man. At his funeral, someone referred to him as being a "gentle giant". I never really thought of him in those terms, but it was true. He was very withdrawn and his demeanor was such that he walked with his head down and his shoulders slumped. I remember that he used to shrug his shoulders a lot -- almost as if he was having an internal conversation or argument with himself and he was the loser.

Another thing that "hit" me as I was looking through this disc are the family resemblances to my brother and myself. I know that I look at bit like my mom and that I inherited my brown eyes from my father, but I never really knew where my nose "came" from. I think it is very similar to my grandmother's...

My close family members will agree that I am completely obsessed with taking pictures. I bet I have taken literally thousands of photographs in my time, but it saddens me that this "obsession" did not really start until after the birth of my first child. There are so many memories that I have of my family members; I always think, "I wish I had a picture of that!" --- This disc is definitely something to help feed my obsession. I don't think my aunt actually reads this blog, but in case she does: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!