Carol found this photo of my mother, Paula, who was 16 at the time the photo was taken. I think it had been in photos my father had when he died. I am so happy he kept this photo even though he remarried after my mother died. She was such a beautiful lady, young or old.

This is the only photo we have of her as a teenager. So it is precious to us. She was born in Germany and grew up in a small town in the Black Forest, called Lauterbach. She came across the Atlantic in a ship to marry a man from her hometown, to a small town in northern Alberta, Canada. Unfortunately, he died of pneumonia after they had been married probably only four years. My father was an acquaintance of theirs and ended up marrying my mother. In about a year and a half, I came along. By that time, my parents moved to Olympia Washington, where my father was born. So through this series of consequences I was born, also in Olympia.