Luis

Hurray NannaK is back thank you blip central!

This is a photograph I developed and printed in our bathroom darkroom in 1985 or 6..it had some yellow staining…probably not washed enough  but hark, I could fix it digitally.  I’m sure you can figure out which one is Luis.    I thought it would be great fun to have a foreign student  come to live with us when the boys were in HS …the family was maybe not quite as enthused but agreed and so Luis from Paraguay arrived summer of 1985 via the AFS program for a year.,    

Peter was off to college that fall , Eric was a HS junior playing basketball, and Luis was a senior and a great swimmer, breaking some high school records at the time..  He wanted to learn English better (it was good already!) talked about becoming a banker,  and was generally a really good sport even though he ended up mostly hanging out with the other foreign students or the swim team or going to the movies with Herb and me.   Not much contact except xmas and birthdays since.   Eric and his family did have dinner in Paris with him a few years ago, where he is an ER doc. 
   
But that year here was hard for this family:  In December, my Dad died, in Arizona.   We had my newly widowed Mom come for Christmas but the plane couldn’t land in Seattle because of fog, so she had to spend the night in Portland  (3 hrs away) and Luis and I drove to pick her up  the next day…his chance to see (very little ) of Portland .   In January, Herb’s Mom died in Forida so there were trips there as well as Chicago for a funeral there.   But not with him.    AND…we had to put down our old Irish Setter in early 1986!   A lot all at once.   Also good times….a trip to Vancouver BC for Expo 86, sailing, skiing, graduation. 

We have quite a few camping photos…I think this is a lake in the Cascades….some on Ocean beaches that you can’t camp on anymore.     As I post this, Luis is on a plane from Paris,  arriving in Seattle tonight, with husband,  for a week to visit us and his old haunts. !!…so tomorrow you will see the grown up Luis!