A Letter to our Grandmother Louise and our Grandfather Roscoe

Dear Grandma and Grandpa:  Though we were never privileged to see or meet you, we, your descendants, study your photos preserved down the decades of time and feel that, through these images, we know who you are.  You left your noses, your mouths, your facial characteristics stamped on your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and ever on down.  We wonder if you laughed the same way that Dad laughed.  To our grandmother Louise:  We realize now, belatedly, that you were just a girl when you died.  We look at our own daughters and remember our wives at the age of 26, and we wonder, what were your hopes?  Your young-girl dreams? Did you know that through your brief years you would forever leave a legacy imprinted in our genes and that we would forever look at your lovely picture, frozen in time, and grieve that we never could have seen you, talked to you, listened to you sing and laugh?  To our grandfather Roscoe:  Could you have possibly known that your son, our dad, would forever feel lost and alone and worthless after knowing that he would not remain at home with you after you married again?  You were both here for such a short time.  We wonder if the miracles of modern medicine could have saved you both so that you could have been a part of our lives, rather than images from the annals of time that we study, looking for a mirror of ourselves, wondering just how much of you is in us, and how much of each of us we continue to pass down to those who follow.  You were and will forever remain our grandparents, links to eternity.  If only we could have known you.  But, then, since there remains so much of you in us, we may, on reflection, know you better than we all may have even thought.  And, "somewhere in time", we know that we will come to know and see you.  Your loving grandchildren.