My sister Jolene gave all of us a wonderful Christmas gift, a framed reproduction of a photo of our mom lounging on the beach – with her mom! – on Santa Anna Island (now Anna Maria) – a seven mile barrier island off the Gulf coast of Florida – where they used to escape to in the winter. Mom is spectacular, probably age 17-18, but so is her mom, who’s 25 years her senior.
She’d go on and entice a smooth-talking once MSU linebacker for rollicking times in Port Austin, when that was a happening thing. Their coupling resulted in me, so here I am. My mom went on and married Italian electrician John and had a wonderful life, raising the 4 kids who are my brother and sisters, John dying some years ago. I’m happy I could interject myself in the past decade into her life. I’ve loved her since our first meeting, and my wife has noted all the scary similarities we seem to show. She was beautiful to me long before I saw this picture, but oh my. How did I get a mom like that?
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