As a kid I remember this large, nicely framed family photo hanging on the wall at my grandparents home, more commonly referred to as “87” or “87 Parkview.”

I don’t know why the photo fascinated me so much, it is not as if I never saw all those people. On the holidays, 87 Parkview was like a truck stop, people always coming and going and no doubt a game of Pinocle in the garage, where, like a truck stop, some not-so-kind words might also be heard. Maybe it was that everyone was so clean in the photo? No one was under the hood of a car covered in grease or hanging drywall, fixing a washing machine, replacing a toilet, pulling out old electrical wiring, or peeling 100 potatoes.

Yes, I have many great memories of all the events at 87 Parkview but I acknowledge that maybe my dad and his 11 brothers and sisters who grew up there might also have a “few” they would like to forget. But as grandchildren, it was the closest place to heaven here on earth. Almost literally as my grandmother was very close with God.

So, the story starts with Raymond Joseph Germain, Sr. and Dorothy Marie Brown.