While we were visiting my Aunt Ruth on our Wisconsin road trip, she showed me some family pictures. One was a portrait of my parents’ wedding party. (Aunt Ruth and my mother were sisters.) Ruth asked if I’d like to have the picture and I gratefully said “yes.” I have a wedding picture of my parents, but not of their wedding party. The bridesmaids are (left to right) my dad’s sisters, Geraldine (Gerry) and Lenore (Lynn). Of course, my mother is the bride and her sister, Shirley, is the junior bridesmaid. I think the groomsman on the left is my first cousin once removed, the son of my grandpa’s sister and therefore my mother’s cousin. I have no idea who the other groomsman is. My dad is in his Army Air Force uniform because he was on furlough from active duty. After serving in Europe and North Africa, he was expecting to be sent to South Carolina. While my parents were on their honeymoon, however, Japan surrendered, and active combat ended. My dad was released from service, but not discharged. He remained in the Air Force reserves until he retired as a full colonel at the age of 60.
This is a picture of my grandpa on his 90th birthday with his five children, my mom and her siblings. My grandma died eight years before this and Donald, the sixth child, died at the age of eight from a ruptured appendix. In the back row are my mother with her brothers, Rollie (left) and Gibby (right). Grandpa is in the center and my aunts, Ruth (left) and Shirley (right) are in the front. This photo was in a frame for nearly 40 years, and I didn’t want Aunt Ruth to damage it by removing it for me to take a picture of it, so there’s some glass reflection in my photo.
This picture was also taken on my grandpa’s 90th birthday and shows him with his brother, Garry. My great-grandpa immigrated from Germany to Wisconsin. When he was settled, my great-grandma followed with their three young children, my grandpa (Lorenz), his brother Garry, and his sister Lydia. What courage that must have taken for both of my great-grandparents!
Ted and I have a photo gallery in our house, and I plan to frame these photos and add them to the gallery with other family photos dating from the very early 1900s through our latest addition, our great-grandson.