35 Years

I was lucky enough to spend the weekend with these amazing women. It's hard to believe that have been in my life for 35 years now. We all worked at Fort Mackinac in the late 80s and early 90s.

For years we  always got together once or twice a year, but over the last few, we let life get in the way of our get togethers. And then, our number got smaller. Our dear friend, Chandra, passed away unexpectedly last spring. 

So we have renewed our promise to get together as often as we can.

Not every one of us can make it every time we meet, but we've decided to do the best we can since we never know what tomorrow may bring.

Kelaine, Rachel, Michelle, and Shannon - thank you. Thank you for making our friendship a priority; thank you for sharing your joys and frustrations and listening to mine; thank you for a weekend full of love and laugher; but most of all, thank you for 35 wonderful years of friendship! I can't imagine my life without each and every one of you.

Long Did She Reign

In honor of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, I share one of my Grandma's favorite tea cups - from the Queen's coronation in 1953. 

I'd also like to share this photo of the Royal Yacht HMS Britannia as she carried Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip through the Straits of Mackinac in 1959. I wasn't on Mackinac at that time; the photo was taken by the then Director of the Mackinac Island State Park Commission, Eugene Peterson. (Thanks to his daughter, Marta Olson, for sharing.)

Recently I have been reminded of the Queen's words: "When life seems hard, the courageous do not lie down and accept defeat; instead, they are all the more determined to struggle for a better future." Wise words from a strong and courageous woman. May she rest in peace...

The Good Old Days

I've been having some fun lately digging through the boxes of photographs I've collected over the years. I could sit there for hours looking at them; sometimes giggling and other times feeling frustrated that somehow dates were never written on the back.

Luckily, when it comes to photos of my childhood, I can often narrow the date based on one huge family event: my brother was adopted in 1980 - the year I turned 10. I'm thinking the picture above (with our dad) was taken not that long after he arrived - maybe the summer of 1980,  and the one below a few years later - maybe 1982 ish (with our cat Sybil.)

I feel like I got the best of both worlds when it came to childhood. I had ten years to experience what it was like to be an only child, and then in an afternoon I went from being an alone to being a big sister. (My brother was eight when he came to the US from Korea.) While we may have fought and bickered like typical siblings, I'll take having a brother to being an only child any day. Though, I'm not sure how I feel about us having matching haircuts. Ugh!