May 23, 2010

Last Sunday would have been my mom's 67th birthday. The last one I celebrated with her was her 53rd.

She worked at our local college for many years and was loved by students and faculty and staff.

I took Kennedy and Reagan up to the campus to take some pictures. But instead of taking pictures of them, I took pictures of the bricks at the Centennial Plaza.Shawn and I have a brick somewhere in the mix but for the life of me, I can never find it. In my search I found several that were picture worthy.

Love the humor.A Jimi Hendrix quote on the campus of a religious university. Look at this one. That's all one family. What a heritage. This is my grandmother's family. She married my grandpa when I was 1. That's four generations represented.My next door neighbor in the dorm. I met her in the first week when I heard her sobbing through a cement wall and went over to check on her. She was a bit homesick. She got over it and lived there four years total.My neighbors. In the 40's students had to sit at the three times a week chapel services in alphabetical order. Don and Joy Beaver sat next to each other. Because of that they fell in love and have been married for over 50 years.Our former neighbor Lois Brasher. She was a widow by the time we moved in. Shawn was her handyman extraordinaire. He would often say that he was going to Lois's. Because of that, McKinley thought her real names was Lois's.But here's my favorite brick. I got all photography class on it and got down on the ground with my Nifty Fifty lens. With the biggest aperture I got this awesome depth of field and what is now one of my favorite pictures.I put this photo on Facebook last night and my a friend put a wonderful comment. Mom was his dad's secretary. His dad was Dean of Students for many years.

Hey Steph - your mom was the coolest staff person at the college. Many, many times she would bail me out by typing something for me (remember, this was before we had computers!); she always looked out for me, watched over me, reminded me of important things (like mom and dad's anniversary, b-days, etc.)...BUT what I remember most was the morning she called my dorm room and said, "Bruce, Dr. Barnard would like to see you at 10am in his office." (she never, never called dad Dr. Barnard)...that was the day Dave Richards and I were ratted out for an insignificant prank...when I saw Dave later that morning, he said, "Hey, Kerry called me and said your dad wants to meet me at 10am" and we both knew we were busted...I know my dad attributes much of his success to your mom...she was a wonderful person who loved life, the college kids, and her family!!

How's that for a start to your day? It made mine.

I love you Mom!