Marina’s final High School performance

The night before Marina’s performance, we had a party.  A party to celebrate our family gathering, Marina’s high school graduation, and Marina’s musical accomplishments.

Adam brought a bouquet of beautiful spring flowers to our party.

Candice and Adam prepared a fabulous dinner for us.  It was fun to sit back and watch them working together in the kitchen.  

It was such a happy, relaxed time—filled with the amazing smells of our dinner being prepared.  Like every home we’ve ever lived in, the kitchen is the gathering place…where everything important happens.

We picked special graduation gifts for Marina.  They represent some of her accomplishments and interests through the years.

A spun glass cello….

Marina, Candice, and Stella flew to New York in March.  Marina was singing with her high school choir at Carnegie Hall.  So we gave her a cool pink hat that says, “I performed at Carnegie Hall.”  

Here she is wearing her new hat and the Carnegie Hall vintage post card that we had found for her.  She is reading the special message that we wrote for her on the post card.

Both Marina and Stella love vintage clothes.  So we gave Marina a beautiful coat that I had found at a vintage clothes store on Capitol Hill in Seattle, when she was just a baby.  Candice, baby Marina, and I had spent a fun day in Seattle when I saw this coat and immediately fell in love with it.  Since then, I have worn it often during the last eighteen years.  It has been my very favorite coat….ever!

It is now time for her to enjoy it.  Marina, wear it with all your memories of Grandpa and me, and know how much we love.

Here she is modeling her “new” vintage jacket.  

The choir performance was absolutely amazing.  It will be an evening we will never forget…our dear granddaughter singing on the stage, doing something that she loves. We could see the joy in her eyes and her body as she swayed with the music that flowed from her and surrounded us.  It was captivating and beautiful.

 

At the end of the concert, all the graduating choir members were given a rose and sang their final song together.  Marina, our amazing granddaughter, is third from the left.

 

We were so very proud of Marina and of her mother, too, who has created a world for Marina and Stella where their talents and dreams can grow with unharnessed energy.  

Mother and daughter….

Sisters….

Grandma and granddaughter….

Stella, Adam, Mom, and Grandma congratulating Marina….

Thank you, Adam, for taking this photo of all of us so proud of Marina!

Oh, to be young again and to have your whole life before you, seemingly endless and so full of possibilities!

Our little granddaughter….all grown up and going out into the world.  Please, world, be gentle with her—she is so very dear to us.