As I looked through old family photos, I noticed common themes of change, togetherness, growing up, and most importantly, happiness. My family (including myself) basically hoards physical photographs that desperately need to be organized into albums instead of sitting in a dusty chest disguised as a coffee table in the middle of the living room or lining the walls of my room. I enjoy looking at family photos as my parents’ transition from taking at least 50,000 pictures of their first child, my brother, at every angle and slowly begin to spend less time behind the camera once I, the last child of four, am born. My three siblings and parents all have very distinct personalities that are often represented in family photographs however, it was difficult to pinpoint one image that really exhibited the true essence of just one. However, as I compared baby photos from the early 90s to early 2000s, I noticed a trend in the spirit and emotion of one family member, my grandfather.

My mother’s parents live an hour away from my home in Omaha, Nebraska and thus have been extremely prevalent in my entire life. My traditions, sense of humor, personal values, and graciousness come directly from my grandparents. In each photo of my grandfather, whether it was a photo from a family vacation, the hospital the day I was born, or one of the many times my grandparents babysat us as my parents escaped their four crazy children, my grandfather is always smiling. However, after looking through this chest and failing to find a photograph that captured the true essence of my grandfather, I remembered a photo that I hung on a wall in my room several years earlier.

This photo (mostly likely taken after a few glasses of fireball) was found a couple of years ago along with a series of very similar pictures of my grandparent’s friends smiling just as hard and just as close to the camera. This photo not only captures the essence of my grandfather’s sense of humor, social personality, and obsession with sweater vests, but illustrates my personal forever image of my grandfather. From growing up very poor in the small farming town of Leshara, Nebraska to now, happily retired with my grandmother and able to support nine grandchildren from three daughters of his own, my grandfather will forever be represented by the happiness of this photo. Even though I was not present when this photograph was taken, the constant jokes followed by contagious laughter and the raw spirit of my grandfather at every family gathering is never something I take for granted, especially during times like these when seeing loved ones is more difficult than ever before.