Stuart Beach Nostalgia

Now that it is the heart of winter, I am getting nostalgic for Stuart, Florida, where my sister and I own a condo that we inherited from our parents, Nelson and Mary.  They moved there in 1976, and although my father passed away just 7 years later, my mother continued to live there for almost 30 years.  Susan and I would often go down to visit, and the main activity there was to head to Stuart Beach, where my sister would head out into the ocean on her boogie board and my mother and I would sit in the shelter on the boardwalk, read that day's Stuart News, and watch Susan head further and further out to sea.  This would worry my mother to no end, but happily, Susan - eventually - always headed back to shore.  I took the photograph of her heading up the ramp to where the two of us were sitting back in March of 1996.

I took the photograph on the right as we were getting ready to head home for dinner, with my sister proudly carrying her boogie board on her head and my mother still clutching her copy of the Stuart News.  Sadly, when I was preparing the condo to rent after my mother passed away, I threw out a lot of stuff, including that boogie board. Once we get to the point where we feel we don't need to rent out the condo anymore, I will buy Susan another one. Of course, she is now almost a quarter of a century older, but perhaps in the meantime she can start to get into shape so she can get back on that replacement boogie board.