41 Years Ago Today...

... My parents got married. Lucky for us their children * it has always been and still is a very loving relationship and I could not be more thankful and delighted about this!! Congratulations mami & papi, I love you so much!!

The photo below is the only one I have (my mom needs to scan more :-). It features my dad's family and brings me some bittersweet thoughts -- some breathtakingly sad mixed with happy ones. The one in the far left is my dad's oldest brother, the one who preached at the wedding, because he was already a pastor. This uncle's wife (portrayed next to him) left him only a few years later. Next to her is my aunt's husband Joao, who died nine years later in a freak car accident (I intend to tell this story someday -- this aunt was always the closest to us since she's always been good friends with my mom and my brother and I grew up as siblings with her daughter and son). Next to my mom is my uncle who is currently awaiting surgery from a newly found brain tumor in Washington D.C. (I mentioned this uncle at the end of the previous post, but I didn't know about the tumor then. Please pray for him and his wife if you can!).

Unfortunately, we are mostly estranged from the two remaining aunts in the back and my uncle, the one in between them, lives by himself in the small town where they all grew up (in the one house that remained after they sold my grandpa's properties after his death back in the late 70s) and is painfully schizophrenic. My dad visits him yearly, bringing clothes, checking on the house and what my uncle's been up to. So sad.

The little girl to the left of my grandpa is my dear aunt Ber who lives in Nashville and whom I try to see every year and visit at least every two years. I love her dearly I am so glad that we can still be close and interact whenever we can. Grandpa died back in 1978 and if you're a regular reader you'll know that my grandma died back in December.

My dad's family is complicated, but they are beautiful blue-eyed German-Polish Brazilian folks and I love them all, whether we're in touch or not. I'm glad that this anniversary and the photo I have made me think about daddy's family. And it's good to be spending time with family here in Montreal!

* The link is to the recent Time magazine cover essay by Caitlin Flanagan about marriage that I thought was interesting.