While compiling Meeting my grandfather, I looked through my own photo albums for photographs of myself with Grampy. I came across very few but the majority had one thing in common. Instead of looking straight at the camera for the photo, Grampy is looking at me. The looks on his face could represent a wide range of emotions, but he is focusing on me in the moment, not for some future memory or proof of attendance. That alone makes the tears well.
This particular photo was taken at my confirmation about two years before he died.
Back in September, I posted about how Jim Zanky’s granddaughter had found the photographs of him that I had posted on flickr. This week, Jim Zanky’s daughter found them. A small piece of the puzzle has been found.
Jim Zanky and my grandfather were good friends - maybe even best friends. They met during the war. After the war, before family life got in the way, they visited each other and their families. Years later, my father visited them while in the service. Zanky’s daughter even mentioned my father’s visit in her email. The connection is still strong, even with the younger generations and years of no contact.
My grandfather and I on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France sixty-one years apart.
Trying to find the same places as in his photographs was fun and tricky, but well worth the sense of continuity.
Among my grandfather’s things was a slip of paper with the following statement on it.
If you want your children to follow in your footsteps, be very careful where you place your feet.
I think he placed his feet quite well.
I updated this site with a new page dedicated to Project Meeting my Grandfather. I am focusing my energy on filling in the names of people in the photographs. I even wrote letters to the names my parents came across. Fingers crossed someone responds.
When the hairdresser who has been informed to simply trim your bangs goes on a tirade about how she “once had someone mess up her bangs and didn’t know you could ever mess up bangs”, RUN. Run fast, Run Quick, Just Run…
Because she will not only mess up your bangs but also the layers and well everything about your hair. Every day you’ll stand in the mirror snipping at another odd length bang in hopes of eliminating the fang look.
