Wow. I think the picture above was taken around 1955 or so? That's me in the party dress in the front. I put this in because today would have been my Mum's 84th birthday. Sadly, she didn't live much past her 75th birthday. So Happy Birthday, Mums. If you are up there, and still looking in on us.

My Mum is the woman sitting on the sofa at the far right as you look at the picture. My Nana (Frances, her mother) is in the middle, and my Great Nana (Lucy Ella) is on the far left. My cousin, Susan, is to the right of me, and my brother, Chuck, is to the left of me, as you look at the photo.

I guess Daddy took this picture.

I wore that blue dress for all my special occasions, I remember, and it itched. I'm pretty sure Mum made it for me, because she made just about all my clothes then. I even wore it when I had my portrait painted (does anyone actually sit for portraits anymore?) and I distinctly remember having to go to the artist Mr. Fish's house in Marblehead to sit for that portrait on a regular basis for what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only a few weeks. At that age (I must have been around 7 or 8 I figure) sitting still was torture.

My brother never had HIS portait painted, nor did my sister who came along 14 years later. Just me. I don't know why. First-born-type-thing I guess.

So there you go. I can't say to Mum "many happy returns of the day" because she's gone from this plane of life. But I'm sure she's lurking in the next plane somewhere, maybe here, or maybe not. She could have moved on to bigger and better places than here. I know I would - if I could!

Cheers,

Bex, daughter of Janet.

And one last parting shot, taken about a year and a half after we were married, in 1987. My Mum is on the left, and I am at the front. This is how the dining room looked before Paul got ahold of it and built those cabinets.