In honor of my father and mother, who celebrated 45 years of marriage on Saturday…
10 Things That Would Have Changed Everything:
1) If Robert Beauclair would have stayed in the seminary and become a priest…
2) If he had not joined the U.S. Air Force and gone to Japan…
3) If he had married that Japanese woman he once took out on a date…
4) If Janie Byrne had not taken the summer job at the North Dakota Capitol in the early ’60s and caught the attention of that Irish/French man with the sparkling eyes…
5) If they had not gotten back together after that long break-up…
6) If they had chosen not to go through with it, not to walk down the aisle of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Bismarck, ND, on August 21, 1966…
7) If they had not been open to having that child, a daughter, born in 1967…
8) And her sister, who followed in 1968…
9) And if either Mary Beauclair or Elizabeth Byrne had denied life to any one of their combined 12 children, despite their having come into the world during war times and Depression…
10) Or the same with any of their mothers before them…
This would not have been possible:
Roxane Beauclair Salonen and Camille Beauclair HarveyNor this:
Jane and Bob watching photo DVD created by Chris Harvey
Nor this:
Nicholas Salonen hiding under billiard tableNor this:
Roxane, 41, and Grandma Elizabeth Byrne, 96Nor this:
Billiard Beth at anniversary celebrationNor any of this:
The Salonen and Harvey grandchildren, August 21, 2010
Thank you, Mom and Dad, for giving us life through love, and sustaining our lives through sacrifice. It has not been a flawless road, but you have shown us what is possible by steady perseverance.
Because of who you are and your willingness to say yes to our lives, we all have had the chance to join you on this earthly journey. May the years before you be filled with blessing.
Q4U: Have you ever considered the ‘what ifs’ through a positive lens? What revelations resulted?
Oh my gosh, I got misty reading this!
So many what-ifs! It’s so cool to think about how they were meant to be. 🙂
Looks like a lovely family celebration.
I often “whatif” about the road that brought me to Brainerd, where I am physcially, emotionally, spiritually, socially. There were many times where the path was divided, decisions made, and points of no return.
What a beautiful post! You’ve made my morning!
It’s such a mystery how one lovely thing leads to another, and life unrolls so beautifully.
Congratulations to the lovebirds!
What a cool way to demonstrate the beauty and gift of saying yes to life! This gave me goosebumps.
Your mother is a lovely woman. I see a lot of her in you…especially in the eyes!
As to what ifs, I met my husband in undergrad. He started at a different college and one day, on a whim, saw the sign for my Catholic college on a highway exit and decided he wanted to transfer. He stepped on campus and discovered, lo and behold, it was registration day. The rest is history!
Greetings Gals! Your comments brought even more life to my post. Thanks to all.
Christina, what a wonderful example of “what if” and how it changed the course of both history and herstory. 🙂
As for the eyes, I’ve been told they are Beauclair eyes (meaning from my father’s side), but they are brown like my mother’s. I definitely think I have her smile, and so do some of my kids. 🙂
What a great photo of you! It is amazing when you think about how everything follows a certain direction, the direction that leads us to this very moment.
JeMA, that is profound, and yes, amazing. 🙂 Every moment of our lives count in one way or another toward something.