A Photo by the Campanile

  

I saw this framed photo when I was cleaning up a bookcase.  I was enamored by it and decided to put it  in the bathroom. The tender emotions it evoked made me felt good and I wanted to see it every time I wake up and wash up.  

This photo was taken in front of the Campanile, a famous landmark at Iowa State University in Ames Iowa where Bob, my husband, and I met and finished our graduate degrees in chemistry.  It was the place where we got married and had Wendy, our first child.

This was taken during our visit there in Ames, Iowa in 1989 before we moved from Kansas City to Pittsburgh.  We decided to take a vacation before Bob started his new job at PPG.  We also went to Disneyland in Florida to complete our time to relax and have fun before the new chapter in our lives.

We wanted the kids to see our alma matter where it all started.  We brought them to Lake Laverne another famous landmark in the campus where their daddy proposed to me.  

Wendy was 8 years old in this photo while Bettina would be turning four.  Wendy was the most affected by the move and so were her classmates and playmate.  I remember at one point of the decision process of changing jobs, Meghan, her best friend from school, rejoiced when she found out that my husband changed his mind of moving to Michigan where he got his first job offer.  But ultimately he stuck with his decision to go to PPG.

We had a neighbor who had a child, Shane, who was younger than Wendy and a little older than Bettina.  The kids used to climb the fence to play at his yard.  He was invited to the kids' birthday parties.  When we were leaving in our Chevy station wagon, I saw him sitting on their window ledge looking sadly as the car sped away.  It was a heartbreaking scene.

The trip to Pittsburgh took two days.  Bettina had a terrible cold and had to take medication which we stored in a lunch box cooled with an ice pack.  When we got to the Squirrel Tunnel at about four in the afternoon, we were greeted with the Pittsburgh traffic at that junction.  Welcome to Pittsburgh!  We did not expect it and our bladders were full.

It has been 33 years ago since this photo was taken.  We are still in Pittsburgh.  Bob has retired from PPG two years ago.  It was a blessed move.  Pittsburgh has been a wonderful place to grow our family.  Our two daughters are all grown up now.  Wendy got married to Matt in 2008 and they have two children, Maddie and Luca.  

The photo always reminds me when I see it that everything works out. We were full of eagerness and hope but also had uncertainties then. I did not have a job when we moved but I found several teaching positions, at Westmoreland Community College, Carlow University and Indiana University of Pennsylvania where I fulfilled my passion to teach and also do some research.  We are blessed.  He is up there guiding us.