As you know, we visited my 92 year-old grandpa in Toronto last month, but I haven't really mentioned what we did there.
It's been more than a year since my grandma had passed away, and finally, my grandpa reluctantly acknowledged that it's time to clear our her belongings, as well as almost 90 years worth of photos, letters, and stuff that one accumulates throughout life.
I can't claim to have helped with the dirty work, but according to my parents, they've recovered timeless treasures like children books that my grandpa read when he was a kid (covered in 80+ year-old doodles), numerous photos of family members and accquaintances long-forgotten, and even a pristine copy of my grandparents' wedding invitation.
My grandpa was a meticulous historian, and with that, we have volumes and volumes of photos. Some of them are now digitally preserved, and we have stuck them in our photo album here so we could pass them along some day.
Here are some of my favorites:
Left: My grandparents while in college, ahhh, young love... Right: My grandma with the trendiest perm in the heyday of Shanghai, the 1930's, when it was known as the "Paris of the Orient". Must be glamorous to be my grandma then
Left: Wedding Day, June 24, 1939. According to my grandpa, it took him much persuasion for my grandma's affluent Shanghainese family to accept him as a country boy from the South, even though he's proved himself as an established Army General. Right: My Grandma the renegade-(wanna-be)
Left: My grandpa's military day- we've heard his many stories working undercover for the Allies during WWII, even though they' may be *slightly* embellished, I'd like to think that someone in my family had a heroic and colorful past. Right: My grandma and her 2 youngest sons, aka my dad (the chubby toddler) and my uncle in Szechuan. The robe my dad was wearing here is now hanging in a shadow box in my living room.
Left: My dad, his older brother and sister and the family dog, who must be very mellow to live with these toddlers using him as a footstool. Right: The 3 brothers, each in true character of their own
