Bob & Betty Gone Nine Years

Yesterday was the ninth anniversary of the day of my parents’ funeral.  My parents were Robert Joseph “Bob” Landry, Jr. and Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.  The last wedding anniversary that they celebrated was their 64th wedding anniversary in November of 2016.  They were both having physical problems at the time but were able to get back together for their anniversary. 

Then my mom had a stroke on January 18, 2017, and died the following morning.  My dad was in hospice at the time, and I had gotten a call that he could die at any time.  Two serious phone calls on the same night.  On the morning that my mom died, my dad was getting the Last Rites.  He ended up dying five days later, and we had a joint funeral on January 28, 2017.

I was considering not writing an ‘anniversary’ post about their death this year.  But I decided to go ahead and do so.  I was going to say that you wouldn’t know that by the photo I picked, but after writing what I wrote, I’m thinking that you might think I posted the photo because it looks like my dad might be dead in the photo.  Those were not my thoughts at all.  

I had thought that I’d post something fun about them, so I prepared these two photos with the writing that was in their old photo album that they had put together during their first year of marriage.  I always thought it was fun that they took the photos and also decided to place them together in their album.  It is very lighthearted and playful revenge. 

The first photo is a photo my mom sneaked of my dad taking a nap after dinner.  The photo was taken at married housing in Kerosene Flats at Edwards Air Force Base in California.  It was during their first year together.

My dad decided to get even by taking a photo of my mom when she wasn’t ready to be photographed.  My mom was young and moved quickly back then, but my dad was quicker.  She almost made it out of the room, but fortunately for us, she didn’t quite make it.

I’ve always liked the photo.  It always puts a smile on my face.  I’m smiling right now, but I must admit that at the same time, I have bit of a tear as well.  It’s a bittersweet thing, but only because of tonight’s topic.  The photo itself is mostly just sweet.  Even though it was taken in revenge.  But really, how can this be considered revenge?  For people who like to watch reality TV to see conflict, it would make them yawn.

That’s fine by me.  I’d prefer to have parents who were bad at being vengeful.  I’m quite satisfied with that.