I find myself coming back to this picture. Is it the young Dan Beittel affectionately holding my brother in his lap? All of the kids gathered together in a pose in the patio in the Arden Park home in 1961? Myself, ever the big sister, being the important one to hold the cat on her lap. Likely I would have pulled rank and not allowed anybody else. My father probably took the picture and Dan Beittel pulled us all together. Always present with the kids, you can see my brother respond. Not Thanksgiving, there are leaves on the trees and we are dressed for summer. Pam, always the baby, with her curly hair and smocked dress on the hobby horse. I would not say they were simpler times, because they weren't.
Mark, June and Lynn dutifully pose. I will juxtapose that picture with those three, now adults, participating in the receiving line at Dan's memorial in September. Seems so sad to match these two pictures. But Dan is the also the center of the first picture though he likely didn't intend that. I have had no other opportunity to see the three Beittel siblings though I am fond of all of them.
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