THE CHESS GAME … circa 1972

In 1990, shortly after my husband died, I was looking through some old photographs and came across a wonderful one of Dick and our oldest son Mark 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 three children to play since they were toddlers.

The only problem was that it was a Polaroid shot and so faded that I could barely make out the expression on Dick’s face. I mentioned this to Mark 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. Framed and mounted it 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.

Mark and his siblings learned a lot from their dad as he taught them to play chess… not the least being tenacity and patience.