My Grandparents as their Younger Selves

When home last Memorial Day weekend I was working on the desk in Scott's room and found a flash drive.  Curious as to what was on it, I plugged it into my computer and found an absolute treasure-trove of photos documenting my mother's family, her and her three sisters and four brothers, growing up in the 1950s and 60s.  I think originates from scanned photos my aunt made of what she found in my grandmother's house after she died in 2007.  Of course I copied all of them - there were literally hundreds of photos - to Skydrive.  Such things are priceless and now I have them forever.

While the photos were primarily childhood photos of my mother and her siblings, there were also a precious few of my grandparents from before their children were born.  Posted below are the two youngest portraits of them I found, my grandfather's Navy photo and a portrait of my grandmother from what would have been roughly the same time.  They wouldn't even have met yet.  It's a strange realization to me that since these photos were taken in the 1940s, they both would have been in their early 20s, younger than I am now.

My grandfather, Daniel (Navy photo)

My grandmother, Madeline (mid-1940s)

My grandmother especially - I can't believe how beautiful she looked.  I'm so proud.  It's also remarkable to me how I can see in her face then a blend of all the people who would become my aunts and uncles.