This my grandpa. Born in Ukraine, he eventually settled in New Jersey after WWII. . During the war, he fought in the Soviet Red Army against the Nazis. . The Nazis were bombing a train that my grandmother was on, and she was having difficulty helping her father evacuate. That’s when a handsome, mustachioed soldier […]
Mom and the great blue sea, circa 1960s. . I’ve heard many stories of her growing up on my great grandpa’s sailboat, but I’ve never seen a photo of it…until now. . Her commentary on this photo: “We were born with sea legs!” . Losing my great grandma has been hard, but it does mean […]
Proof of the prettiest smile ever. . This is a Marshall University sorority photo of my mother, Jane Costanzo, at the age of 19 in 1964. . My mother has had many accomplishments across her lifetime that I can recall. As a child, for example, being the diligent Girl Scout that she was, she practiced […]
16 June 1960, New Delhi, India. My handsome ‘nanaji’ (maternal grandfather) Amrik Singh Rana and his cousins on his wedding day. Nanaji, born during the British Raj in India, had a love for modernity. He always brought his daughters western outfits from his travels abroad and had the sweetest curiosity for his grandchildren’s new gadgets […]
WANT TO HEAR A CRAZY STORY??!! (Yes, one that warrants all caps and two question marks.) . While we were in Utah for my grandpa’s funeral this summer, I happened upon a box that had Kodak canisters inside. Etched onto the rolls of film were dates: 1955-1956. . I was so excited imagining what parts […]
For almost five years, I’ve had this photograph of my great-grandparents framed in all the places I’ve lived – at my parents’ house, in my first apartment, in the first apartment I lived with my boyfriend and now, in our home. . I see them there every day, grinning and smiling at me from my […]
Chubby me, a few years ago. . This image is the result of discovering a perfectly intact medium format negative, which we found in a box full of other negatives, dating back as far as 1952. . My mom thought she had thrown them away, but luckily she remembered wrong. . Now we go through […]
Jack Seitz and Charlotte Forbes were voted the best couple during high school. Just one year later, they eloped to Niagara Falls because Charlotte’s daddy, who was a Lutheran minister, did not approve of Jack’s Catholic background and refused to let them marry. One of the things I will always remember about my grandparents is […]
Grandma. She’s the little girl standing front and center in the first photo. She just turned 95. . She likes to tell us that the family looks like share croppers in this picture. She was raised in Kansas and grew up during the Great Depression. One of her favorite stories to tell is about raising […]
There is so much of my grandmother’s life that I’d love to share with the world, an Instagram caption would never be enough. Whether it’s learning more of our Pittsburgh roots or what life was like growing up during the Great Depression, which is something that is not often spoken about. . One of our […]
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