She always loved me, even when I had missing teeth.

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1965. Mom appreciates my smile during a boat ride.

Tikes, with their Trikes

Toronto, Ontario, Canada, January 1956. My Toronto Cousin celebrates a birthday.

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Suburban Chicago, June 1961. I anticipate a birthday. Maybe I will get a bigger trike?

Pre-War Audi?

Kaunas, Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, about 1960. My Kaunas Cousin relaxes on the hood of a vintage car with her Grandfather, my Dad's cousin, Henry.

After 1949, the East German Audi plant began remanufacturing pre-war models. I can't tell whether Henry owned this vehicle before the war or whether he acquired it, new, in the 1950s.

It's a back-to-back, hands-on-hips post.

Knossos Palace, Crete, April 20, 1976. I loved those shoes. The color of the column is "Oxblood," the "in" shade of Fall 2012 Fashion Week.

Dora in the Doorway

My Mom's maternal aunt, Dora, continued to live in my Mom's childhood home until she died.

Here is Dora in the late 1950s, again posing on the steps.

Kaunas, Lithuania, September 10, 1959. Dora wrote to my Mom, "Here I am, wearing the tafetta dress you sent to me. I like the dress very much, and it is so flattering."

Hey there, country girl.

Near Palemon Hill, Lithuania, 1936. My Dad's friend Stevi stands at the entrance to her family farm.

Farewell, Friends!

"I bid goodbye to my colleagues and compatriots, as I await the car that will drive me to the station, and from there, a train to Grohn [a village near Vegesack, on the Weser River], and from there ... a boat to ... America."

Schweinfurt, Germany, April 25, 1949. The emigrating Displaced Person, on the far left in the light-colored trench coat, uses the back of a photo to say "goodbye" to my Dad.

See? The hands-on-the-hips thing is not something new.

Related by Marriage: Wisconsin Roadside Tavern

The Godparents of Mr. Irene's Mom owned a Wisconsin tavern.

"Re-elect Dilweg for Congress."

Need a room?

Carter, Wisconsin, Summer 1944. Mr. Irene's Mom, center, stands with her Godparents.

General Manners: Never beg.

"Please?!" and other forms of whining rarely work.

Suburban Chicago, Spring 1961. We're in the backyard, on the patio, near the steps leading to the kitchen door. Mom has her pocketbook and sunglasses; I suspect she's on her way to work. I am out to get something, and Mom is completely on to my tactics.

From Russia: imagine triumphing over life's adversities.

I saw this photo of Elena well before I knew what she had written on the back. The image lingered in my memory because Elena's posture here is similar to a pose her sister—my paternal Grandmother, Tatjana—often struck. It's an aristocratic, proud body language that concurrently seems soft and inviting.

Here is what Elena wrote about the photograph: 

To Tatjana, my beloved one, very dear to me, my little older sister. I am always with you in thought.

My son said to me, "Mama, you are always sad."

I replied, "That's how I became after Papa died."

He said, "But you should laugh, smile. I will take your photograph."

So I imagined myself as someone who has triumphed over life's adversities. I straightened up and smiled. My son took the picture.

Russian Soviet Socialist Republic, August 1963. We don't know on which beach Elena stands.

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Thanks again to my dear friend, D, for translating the text from Russian to English.