Celebrating an Aunt

I recently finished reading Winter Wheat by Mildred Walker. The setting is the early 1940s on a Montana wheat farm. The main character is Ellen Webb, an 18-year-old when the story opens. She's lived as an only child, working the land with her parents. Because the wheat crop is good, she is able to go off to college where she meets and falls in love with a young man who grew up in the city. When she brings him home to meet her parents, her perceptions of who she is, who her parents are, and life in general change as she looks at everything through his eyes.

When I was looking for a photo to celebrate my aunt's birthday today, I found this one. I scanned it a few years ago but hadn't looked at it closely. The miracle of technology allowed me to enlarge it and see that she was just a teen when it was taken. Isn't she lovely? I love to see the freshness of youth, especially youth of a generation or two ago. For some reason the photo reminded me of Winter Wheat (though she wasn't standing in a harvested wheat field).

Aunt Dot is my mother's sister, my grandparents' third daughter. She is the last of that generation of my family. She continues to have joy in life. And she has been a great help with family history, answering questions about people, places, and events as she remembers them. I'm grateful for all she's done for me.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Dot!