This! I love every single word. I am struck by the loss of people who can tell the stories behind these old photos - how nice that you've found the one of your grandmother and some info about it. Do you know why she died? The obit mentions that she was chronically ill, I am curious with what.

I am struck too by a feeling of their all still being here, as a reader I went in and out of then and now. The losses, the gains, the tragedies and blessings. So beautifully written.

Parts of this story are very similar to my family's story. My mother lost her mother when she was 18 months, was then shuffled around among relatives who did not want her and were far from kind to her, yet she became a loving and generous mother herself. Her cousin Jane had a similar experience, and for a time they both were "cared for" in an old Victorian house (still in my family although I am the only one fighting to keep it) on a lake in central NYS. I can't bring myself to get rid of old photos of people I do not know, and no one is alive still who would. They probably visited the house on the lake, and I know them there by there presence, if not their names.

Thank you for writing this. I savored every heartfelt word. xo