Saturday, July 23, 2011

Happy Birthday, Aunt Janet!!

NEXT FRIDAY, July 29th, my Aunt Janet Fuger, now of Rochester Hills, Michigan, will turn 100 years old. This is one extraordinary lady, who has outlived her three brothers (including my father), by keeping herself active, interested and physically fit. In the above ancient photo, she's Janet North Page, the happy-looking little dark-haired girl who at the time was probably three or four years old. The young man with her is her older brother Joe. Here are a couple more scenes from the same album... These images were in a beat-up old family album that has spent most of its life stored away in musty attics and damp basements, and I find it amazing that the pictures survived as well as they have. I'm also very pleased that Aunt Janet's centenary celebration prompted me to resurrect these images and scan them for posterity.

Just for fun and comparison, here's how Aunt Janet looked (and behaved) in August 1982, during a family vacation/reunion in Pointe aux Barques, Huron County, Michigan... It's been at least ten years since I last saw my Aunt. I'm grateful to my Michigan cousins, who are hosting an impromptu family reunion, to be capped off with an ice-cream social to be held next Saturday afternoon in Rochester Hills. And here's a toast to all families everywhere, and the bonds, however sporadic and tenuous, that bind them together!

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