My daughter doesn’t appreciate most of the posts about her on this blog, but today is her birthday, and so I am thinking about her. Her birthday is in May, and most of her graduations have been in May, so there have been many May celebrations in her honor.
Today I am thinking in particular of her last graduation—from Tulane Law School in May 2010. She earned another law degree this spring, but I doubt she will attend a graduation ceremony for this one. So the 2010 graduation was likely the last time for us to witness her receiving a diploma. It was also the last time any of her grandparents would attend such an event for our children.
In 2010, three of her four grandparents attended my daughter’s graduation. Her paternal grandfather was in a nursing home, but the other three grandparents gladly trekked from their homes to New Orleans. The travel wasn’t weren’t smooth—I’ve written about our NOLA trip from hell, complete with heat, broken air conditioners, too-small vehicles, floods, and broken bones. And my parents traveled from Washington State not long after my mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, which I’ve also written about.
So the occasion was bittersweet—one grandmother there without her husband, other grandparents dealing with a new trauma in their lives. But they all enjoyed putting their granddaughter at the center of their weekend.
The pictures we took of graduation day weren’t great. It’s a good thing we had a couple of professional photos taken to commemorate the occasion.
Still, the pictures I treasure most are those I had to touch up to get anything decent. There’s a picture of the seven of us gathered for dinner after the graduation ceremony—around the table are me, my parents, my husband, my daughter, my mother-in-law, and my son.
And there are a couple of candid shots of my husband and daughter. They’ve always had a close relationship, and I am glad to see the two of them hamming it up a bit. Maybe not hamming it up as much as my daughter and son, but my husband hardly ever relaxes around a camera, so I like these shots of husband and daughter.
What candid photographs always make you smile?
Marcy is quite beautiful! I see both you and Al in her. But, why a second law degree? I do remember when she was sworn in. We were in KCWG and you had your phone tucked under the table, finally announcing that you were watching your daughter being sworn in. I thought that was magic. That you could be in KC, in a writing group no less, watching the swearing in.
The second degree is an LLM, which gives her some specialized knowledge. I’d forgotten I watched the swearing in live!
Great pics! I love the Kodak photos we still have that our parents took from various Christmases during gift unwrapping. My brothers made some hilarious faces.