I’ve been saving the thought of this post for some time, for the right moment as it’s tugged at my heart over the course of the last few months. Some of you know me well and you know my husband and I have a neighbor friend whom we get together with on a regular basis. He treats us like family. He brings us a dozen donuts and a pie every weekend. Yes, every weekend -without fail. I asked him recently, what about a bag of apples or a head of broccoli? We’re gonna get fat! He brings the donuts for the kids and the pie for us. He just say’s your only young once…a few donuts aint’ gonna hurt ya!
We're talking about someone who doesn't know the internet. We ordered a hubcap for him off the internet and he wondered just how we go about getting the hub cap 'outta there'. He just started using a cellphone with our help and is old school. He still drives, mows his grass and takes care of himself-he's very young at heart in so many ways. I'm sure he would have gotten us in trouble if we were all young and friends in his day! Our neighbor friend, he has his agenda for the week and we are on it, come hell or high water. He worries about us if we don’t talk to him for a couple of days and will come and check in on us. He’s a WWII Veteran and hero in our eyes; a walking book of history. He fought for our freedom. His parents emigrated from Italy; he speaks and understands Italian and has a somewhat heavy accent. He loves to cook and has a great palate. He’s from New York, can tell us some stories of 'the mob' and he retired from driving a city bus, through what I consider such an epic era of Americana. He knows hard work. He is the face of America. In fact, he is an amazing part of history and he's a dying breed. He’s told us so many amazing stories that we would never hear on The History Channel, read in WWII books or learn about in school.
Our neighbor friend is 88 years young and one year ago today he lost the love of his life (they met at age 14), after 64 years of marriage, and a battle of Alzheimer’s and breast cancer. In fact he say’s all the time it was not the Alzheimer’s that took her, but the cancer. She was not well enough for the cancer treatment. He cared for her himself for 7 years at home. No matter what she was his pride and joy; and she would never go into a nursing home. He stuck by that.
I never met his wife.
Since that day, he has been a sometimes daily and at least weekly part of our lives. We were worried about him and how he would cope after losing his wife and caring for her. So, we started checking in on him. We invited him over and asked him to dinner. Now he invites us over and asks us to dinner…he has us falling in love with the best imported Italian cheeses and we share a drink or two. We hear stories we’ve never heard and many times the same stories we’ve heard before. But you know, he’s taught us so much. Yesterday, like many days, we were so busy. Run here, run there…football for our son, working on the yard, teenager kids in the house…simply put, we are busy people. But he was on our minds and hearts yesterday and we put him on our agenda. We knew he’d expect us to check in on him-since Saturdays are usually our get together day. So we called him up and planned a get together after dinner. We headed over there a little after 9 pm…he has shrimp cocktail out, delicious fudge like Reggiano cheese, imported mozzarella, crackers and wine. He pulls out all the stops -always- it’s just the way it was done in his age in time. He just had some remodeling completed in his kitchen and he wanted us to see it also; it was beautiful of course. But while we were there, he brought up his wife, who we’ve heard about many times through the past year, and today was a year ago she passed away. He and his daughter are headed to the mausoleum to visit her today. And he’s just on my heart and mind as I type. I’m so glad we called him and went over there last night. I knew the day was coming, but did not remember the actual date.
A few months ago, knowing I'm a photographer, he had asked me about some portrait prints he has of his wife and of his wedding day, over 64 years ago. He has only a few prints, which he cherishes. One was specifically of his wife and it was in black and white…he wanted it colored and asked could I do that for him and enlarge it to an 8x10 as it was a 5x7. Well, if you’ve followed me long enough you know I love vintage-style photography. When I say that, I mean making a new picture look vintage. But I also love photo restoration. So I jumped at the opportunity to restore his vintage (and antique) wedding prints as well as a portrait of his wife. I was honored actually because how amazing really to hold these in my hand and him value them so close to his heart-and know him? I was able to use the hand painted coloring from his wedding portrait to color in the black and white portrait of his wife. The 8x10 is now framed and displayed on his mantle. These memories needed to be preserved, and now they are forever for his future generations.
Through working on these pictures and visiting with our neighbor friend, I am reminded how time flies. He has seen SO much in his lifetime. It's amazing. For example his father was in the ice and coal business. He worked delivering blocks of ice and taking them to clients homes for their fridge. The same with coal in the winter. His first car was a Model T convertible. I mean, you just don't meet people like him every day.
Some days I wish I had a slow-mo button to push. Time literally flies without fail. But these pictures tell a story, of an era past, of a deep and passionate love. The beginning of a family and chapters they would add behind them in their life. It’s just amazing, and deep, and I truly treasure this history. I understand how important it is to capture these special moments and be able to look back on them years down the road and share them with family or friends. I always hear people say photographs like this aren’t taken anymore and I agree in a way, photography is a part of every day life now and in the past it was a special event. Now days, everyone has a camera and they probably carry it with them in their purse and snap pictures wherever they go, of anything and everything. But portraits like this are still made today, because from a photographer standtpoint, we are capturing your era. Your beginning. Your special moment in time. Your history in the making. Just remember to slow down and take the time to capture the moments you can- together. Its not where you end up that matters, but what you collect and treasure along the way and the memories you create.
Salut! Here's to neighbors and friends; and friends who become family, no matter what their age. And to our neighbor friends wife, whom I was never able to meet...she still hold a special place in my heart.
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