Discovering Lost Family Photo Albums

I have been cleaning out my sister Susan's townhouse up in Fort Collins, Colorado lately, getting it ready to put on the market. Susan has decided she does not feel comfortable living by herself, even though she is only a mere 80 years old, and so we need to either get rid of or store a lifetime worth of stuff. As I have been going from room to room, I have discovered all kinds of photo albums that belonged to my late brother-in-law George, with photographs ranging from his childhood in the Panama Canal Zone to life in Chicago to our time here in Colorado. The photograph above is of my mother Mary, father Nelson, and Susan taken sometime before 1976 in front of our house in Country Club Hills, an ugly suburb south of Chicago that had neither hills, a country club, or for that matter even trees. On the bright side, almost the entire extended family lived close by, which as I look at it now, was reason enough to live there. Once we all left the Chicago area, I think we lost something really important. At least we have the photos.