Father's Day - 1955

Dear Diary,

Today is the Summer Solstice marking the mid-summer according to Celtic traditions and it is also Father's Day here in the states.  I am taking a break from my genealogical weekend here on Nantucket to honor my father who passed in 1998 with a photo of me and him in 1955. 

I am reading a wonderful memoir by the photographer Sally Mann (thank you DDW for turning me onto this book!) and a passage in it struck me particularly.  I have found its thoughts especially relevant as I've been looking at the stories of my father and mother over the last year of creating my family chronicle.  Perhaps it will resonate with some of you as well:

"...postmortem readjustment is one that many of us have had to make when our parents die.  The parental door against which we have spent a lifetime pushing finally gives way and we lurch forward, unprepared and disbelieving, into the rest of our lives."

Page 173, Hold Still by Sally Mann