Pull Up A Chair

Countless baby and school pictures filled that box.  Never before seen (by us anyway) pictures of our parents in rompers and footed pajamas were scattered throughout. I stopped in my tracks when I found a picture of my mother in her late teens with a crown on her head. She was so beautiful. And lovingly inscribed on the back, in my nana's flowery handwriting were the words, "Marsha, Winter Sweetheart 1961."

I dug deeper, and found my dad standing next to a hot rod and my uncle on his first horse. I found my aunt in pigtails and another of my mom with bouncing curls. All four of her children were in those pictures, lined up on a fence or sitting on hay bales.

Then, we struck gold...Nana, in all her glory, gazed at us with 18 year old eyes, a fur trimmed coat and a "flapper" hat. And another, with her hair in curlers and a scarf blowing in the wind. The room fell silent as it dawned on us that Nana wasn't always a loving schoolteacher, but a young woman with big dreams and a wide open heart. Her love for her children evident in every picture in which she held a baby or a squirming toddler.

Lastly, we found ourselves amongst the many black and whites of yesteryear. Another generation in diapers and footed pj's, pigtails and horses, each picture lovingly inscribed with a name, a date and an occasion.

Although Nana had often referred to her students as her "children", it became apparent that day where her heart really belonged...to the group of teenagers and young adults, sitting in a kindergarten classroom in a converted master bedroom of a true role model.

We should all be so lucky.