Family.

One minute these kids are gawky, sullen teenagers and the next they're drop-dead gorgeous young women. Sandi's nieces Laura and Sarah.

To be honest with you, I don't appreciate how old they make me look by comparison.

Larry, Sandi, Lola, Clif, and Beth, June, 2011.

 Mom and me, 2006. I never told my siblings this--and I hope they're not reading it now--but Mom told me once or twice  many  countless times that I was her favorite, that if she and Dad had it to do over again they would have had just one kid, and that it wasn't necessary for her to have to tell me who that kid would have been. She was sensitive and classy enough to have never given even the tiniest hint of this to my brother and sisters and there's no good reason to make it known now. Let's just drop it.

Patty, me, and Mom, February of 2007. She had been sick and, in fact, had just gotten out of the hospital and had yet to get her hair done. Looking pretty good though, for being just shy of her 85th birthday.

She died the summer of '07 and her family gathered to say goodbye.

With apologies to my favorite brother, who was born in 1958, my favorite family photo, from around 1957.

And 53 years later.