Hello, bloggy friends!
Valentine's Day is just 2 days away! Are you ready?
I have been writing on 2 subjects lately that are related and both are very important to me... family and love....
This is the second of a series of posts I am writing on…called
“The Love Chronicles”.
In that post, I wrote about the love letters, shared between my grandparents during their courting days.
I feel so blessed to have been raised by two loving Christian parents, as well. My father, who was my grandparent's youngest son, lived down the street from my mother. (Yes, they were actually neighbors). Interestingly enough, they really didn't know or meet each other until my mom graduated from high school....that was because my father was 12 years her senior. He was graduating high school when she was just starting to go to school. By the time they met, he had accomplished a lot in his life already...college, going into the navy, and working for his father's furniture business.
Below is a photo of dad, when he was in the Navy. He is the one wearing the hat on the right.
The Furniture Mart, which was opened by my grandfather(standing on the right), and then run by my father(on the left) for over 50 years.
My parents were married in the little church, (pictured below), located just a few blocks from where they grew up. My mom told me that the picture of the wedding party was actually staged and taken after they were married. You can see people mingling in the background.
Nine months after they married, my oldest brother was born. 21 months after that, my other brother came along, followed by me, then my baby sister. It became a full house very quickly!
Our families on both sides were very close-knit. My parents built their first house on the same road they grew up on, and across the street from my paternal grandparents. Most weekends and holidays were spent at one or the other of my grandparents houses.
Below: Grandpa and Grandma with me(on the right) and my siblings.
Over the years, my mom made sure we would get annual family photos. The first photo(below) was taken in our living room. (I remember the fake brick wall behind us.) The other 2 were taken in our back yard. My dad loved photography and took all these with a timer, I'm sure. For many years he also developed all his film in a darkroom he built in our basement. I love looking at these pictures and seeing all the changes in each of us in just a few years time. (Can you find me in each pic?)
I love the photo(below) of my parents from the 70's. They were so serious looking. I suppose raising 4 children on 2 middle-class incomes wasn't easy. My father ran the family furniture store and my mother had her own beauty shop, which she ran in the back of our house.
I can honestly say, even with all the chaos and activity, our house was filled with lots of love...especially the love of extended family. God surely gave me lots of great examples of His love through my family's time spent together, hearing and reading the Word of God, and attending church regularly.
"What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All
that we love deeply becomes a part of us."
Helen Keller
To read the other post in my series,
The Love Chronicles
For Part 1 - click HERE
For Part 3 - click HERE
Have a blessed day!
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