| It wasn't as if the whole family had to pay for it. | | | | on their wedding day, shrunken and wrinkled, old |
| No one had offered to, although they would take | | | | even then, 25 years ago, but happy, deliriously |
| part of the credit when the 25th anniversary gift | | | | happy. |
| was opened and exclaimed over and hung lovingly | | | | Since their anniversary fell on Christmas day, I |
| over the fireplace for all to see. It wasn't as if the | | | | thought the original oil painting would be a unique |
| wedding portrait, an original oil painting from an old | | | | Christmas gift idea as well as a memorable 25th |
| photo, was anyone else's idea, but someone | | | | wedding anniversary gift. They deserved |
| would probably say it had been. | | | | something special to commemorate how far they |
| It was an idea I had been forming in the back of | | | | had come. They knew about all the struggles, |
| my mind since last year when my grandparents | | | | even though we, the blended family, always tried |
| had celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary, | | | | to keep the unpleasantness from them. Maybe it |
| which fell on Christmas day. Twenty five years of | | | | was too late to try and teach an old family new |
| marriage does not seem like a lot for | | | | tricks, but they didn't think so. Every child and |
| grandparents, especially for those who have | | | | grandchild, niece and nephew was loved by my |
| grandchildren in their forties, like me, but theirs | | | | grandmother and their grandfather as though |
| was an amazing love story. Both had been | | | | they were flesh and blood. |
| married to other people following the Holocaust | | | | They deserved something special. The thought |
| and had subsequently lost their spouses tragically - | | | | kept circling around in my head. A wedding |
| his from cancer, hers in a car accident - and then, | | | | portrait would not be enough. I would have to |
| love again. Getting married later in life, with | | | | revive the family portrait idea. They deserved |
| families already well-established and fully-grown | | | | something special like the whole family - the two |
| hadn't been the easiest transition. Different walks | | | | they had tried so hard to make into one - coming |
| of life, beliefs and ways to properly cook a | | | | together on one page, or at least one on piece of |
| Thanksgiving turkey had been only a few of the | | | | canvas, frozen happily in a timeless collection. A |
| many issues that had arisen between the newly | | | | sitting would never work, but a painting from a |
| blended family members, but now it was time to | | | | photo would. It wasn't going to be easy, but then |
| come together. | | | | again, love, of any kind, never is. After all they |
| Originally it had been a family portrait idea - to | | | | had given it was worth the sighs and groans, the |
| have a painting made from a photo taken of the | | | | unwanted opinions and ideas, the late arrivals to |
| entire family - siblings and step siblings, children | | | | the photography studio and the enormous cost to |
| and grandchildren, nieces and nephews, but the | | | | give my grandmother and their grandfather - my |
| idea had grown bigger than I could manage, so I | | | | grandparents - the one thing they love the most |
| had decided to simplify with a wedding portrait of | | | | in the world, their whole family. |
| my grandmother and their grandfather together | | | | |