One of the best things about having this blog is that isn't geographically limited. Or for that matter topic limited. That may diminish readership, but it allows me to write about things within and without the city. Like, say, um, my cousin's birthday party.
What do you give a woman on her 72nd birthday? Especially if she's not had a birthday party since she was 16? You guessed - a birthday party that is filled with yummy food, family and more family. Yes, her name is Arriola now, but she is a Martinez through and through, so she planned the main course, the dessert, and the music that played as we danced the night away.
She sat at the head table with her husband John, a man who came into her life, well, a long time after high school. He, like a lot of us at the party, recognized the grandmotherly and maternal images that were flashed on screen as her life was shared in pictures. Like a lot of us at the party, he might not have recognized as a young bride, a high school graduate, or the skinny little girl in the First Communion Dress. 
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words and sometimes a picture carries no hint of the child that is, forgive me Mr. Wordsworth, mother of the woman. Who would think that little skinny Terry would often serve as surrogate mother and eternal "rock" for all family members? Who would expect that she would be a single mom whose daughters would grow up to have Dr. and PhD. as part of their professional titles?
How good and healthy to get together just 'cause. So much better than some of the other reasons we gather together when the person we're focused on is in their 7th and 8th decades of life.
images - James Grimes
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