Maria's birthday fell on Father's Day this year. It also did on her first birthday, as I recall. It seems the holidays have followed Maria, she died on St. Patrick's Day, buried the day before Easter, then we had Mother's Day and now finally her birthday. I think we're done for a while..phew. We, as a family, have gotten together on each of the above days. Family...Sabra made a video for us at Christmas "My Crazy Family" and it started with a quote by Anthony Brandt: "Other things may change us but we start and end with the family". Just think about that for a minute...start and end with the family. I started with Bucky and Gob- my father. My father was and still is a hero to me. He could sing like Bing Crosby, we could whistle (hardly anybody whistles anymore), he could do a perfect swan dive, which he always preceded with the sign of the cross, he could ski with a grace and movement that was beautiful to watch, he could fish and clean the fish and even eat the fish after one of Bucky's failure in the kitchen. He helped us with our math, could spell any word you gave him and knew carpentry. But his greatest skill, his legacy, was his photography. He could capture the faces of children better than any other photographer I have ever known. His pictures fill our albums, boxes and boxes of pictures that document all the events in our lives. Everywhere he went, he had his camera with him. I remember at his wake, my brother Bob suggested that we put a camera in his hands, to make him look more normal. That was my father - that was my family. I ran across a quote that "family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present and future" (Gail Lumet Buckly) Boy, I believe that. I look in the mirror and I see my mother looking back. I look at Paul's boy Ian and I see a picture of my father at that age. Henry reminds me of Sabra and Rachael looks so much like Maria did at that age. Family. Erma Bombeck said "The family. We were a strange little band of characters,.....loving, laughing, defending and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us." That common thread. What is it? Could it be love?