By a quirk of a pleasant fate I married my Rosemary in 1968 and had two daughters. One of them, Hilary, had two daughters.

Hilary and Alexandra on the Royal Hudson

Because of that I have amassed over the years what I believe may be one of the largest collections of children portraits.

There are two photographers of the 19^th century that I have admired for years because of their portraits. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in this century would be pilloried even though we know he had a third person (usually Alice Liddell’s cousin or friend) on his boat with Alice.

Rebecca

Julia Margaret Cameron had the protection of being an older woman when she photographed children.

Both Dodgson and Cameron rarely photographed children smiling. I believe that part of the reason is that in Victorian times, children were seen as little adults, and many worked terrible hours in unsanitary conditions.

Lauren & Casi

Thus, this photographer, by virtue of being a father and grandfather, had the luck of having willing (sometimes not so willing) subjects until my Rosemary died on December 9 2020. Since then my two granddaughters never call and I rarely see them.

There were those halcyon Saturdays when the doorbell would ring. I would open the door and there was Rebecca saying, “¿Cómo estás papi?”

How was I to know that those pleasant Saturdays with Lauren, Rebecca and Rosemary would cease as soon as they grew up? Would Rosemary alive be able to round them up for a visit?

Part of my loneliness is further affected by a broken heart.