Grandma and Grandpa's

This picture was taken the day my sister, Bev, and my cousin, Nancy, made their First Communions. Two separate Communions in two separate cities, but a perfect reason to have a family gathering at Grandpa and Grandma Borg's. We did that a lot. Not just for First Communions. Any Sunday was a good occasion to get together with cousins and aunts and uncles. Lots of them. Some of my favorite memories are centered in that house and yard in Garden City, Michigan.

That's Bev on the left and Nancy on the right--the ones in the white dresses and veils, of course. The toddler whose arms they appear to be yanking out of their sockets is my sister, Melissa, who is no longer with us. When my cousin, Rod first posted this picture on facebook a few years ago, I asked Missy in a comment if it didn't make her little arms hurt just looking at the picture. She replied "Not nearly as much as my face hurt when they let me go!"

I'm behind Bev, and that's my cousin, Mary Jo, next to me. I see I'm wearing my church coat--the gray wool one with the white collar. I remember it, because one Sunday, as we were standing in front of Immaculate Conception chatting with friends, a bird pooped on my arm, and we had to have the coat dry cleaned. I never felt the same about it after that.

This picture was taken later the same day. I just love how elegant my Aunt Lil looks in her beautiful suit and hat. I'm sure she made the suit herself. She appears to be holding a glass, and there's an empty bottle on the table, which seems to have put me in some kind of trance. There's Nancy again. Aunt Flo is sitting at the table, with Kim beside her.

See the man sitting in the lounge chair against the fence? That's Grandpa. He came to this country from Malta as a young man, and worked hard his entire life. I think he reaped his rewards in having his children and grandchildren gathered around him and Grandma whenever they could.

This picture was taken with Grandma and Grandpa around 1971. We're not all there--my baby brother, Jason, wasn't born yet, and my Uncle Chuck's three are missing. I'm sure they showed up later.


The older I get, the more I enjoy dwelling in the past, and Grandma and Grandpa's is one of my favorite places to go.