In late December 1960, my parents were married in Montreal, PQ. My future mother and father were then 28 and 27 years old. So young! I was 37 when I married Carrie… Yet, my future parents in these photographs look older than I felt when I was married, older even than I feel now.

Their marriage has come and gone, but left three children in its wake and five grand children (three by marriage). Its so interesting to look at the people in these images, know many of them well, ponder on the futures that lay before them. I wish I had known my grandparents better. Granny Bets, my maternal grandmother – such a mystery. I have scanned her face in these images gleaning detail to flesh out this person who is so closely connected to me and yet an utter stranger (she passed away when I was a small child); I was afraid of her. Similarly, the imposing figure of my paternal grandfather, Grandpa Gus. I have dim recollections of him as a seven year when my father and I visited Norway in 1971. He seemed so much bigger and more important than me. He was always serious.  My maternal grandfather I knew better – Grandpa Will; he Christmas’d with us for many years out west, flying from Montreal (and the house many of these photographs were taken in!). I wish I’d paid more attention to his pilot stories from WWI. I was afraid of him.

And my mother, here at 28. So beautiful! I love her wedding dress, understated and utterly elegant. She looks so happy. My father looks a little bewildered, much like I felt 41 years later on my own wedding day. My goodness he was/is a handsome man.

Enough prattle, here are some scans of beautifully-printed, but poorly taken images from my parents’ wedding December 28, 1960: