THE CHESS GAME … circa 1972

A few years after my husband died in 1990 I was looking through some old photographs. I came across a wonderful one of Dick and one of our sons playing chess. It really touched me because it was so reminiscent of how they used to spend hours at the chess board. Dick had been teaching all the children to play since they were toddlers.

The only problem was that it was a Polaroid shot and was almost 20 years old. As so often happened with film of that era it had faded so that I could barely make out the expression on Dick’s face. I mentioned this to Mark (the son in the picture) and he agreed that it was a shame to lose that memory.

Then Mark did a wonderful thing. Unbeknownst to me he “stole” the photo when I wasn’t looking. He is an architect and has a very good eye for design so it wasn’t difficult for him to produce this wonderfully stylized version of that photo. He captured the moment exactly as it had been in the original.

This was his Christmas gift to me that year and I was thrilled. I had copies made and, in turn, gave them as gifts to all of my family members.

And the games continue today. Mark is a rated chess player and competes whenever he can get the time. He and his siblings learned a lot from their dad...not the least of these being the tenacity and patience to play a good game of chess.