Friday, October 26, 2007

Friday Family Photo

This portrait was probably taken 120 years ago in 1887 when Stanley C. Byrum was about a year old. It hangs in our cottage, in a fragile old frame coated with thick paint. I was the only one who wanted it when my in-laws' home was being sold after their deaths. He was my husband's grandfather, and the single most important adult in his life. "Biggie" is always in my husband's conversation when values, character or family come up. I never met him; he died in 1955 at 68 while my husband was still in high school. The little face is amazing--it has reappeared in several generations. My mother-in-law had this face, but not her sisters; his great-grand daughter Julie, but not her sister, had this face as a baby, as did her daughter Erin.

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