My Niece Michelle
Michelle has had her own page on my website for a long time. The original page was simple, with a green background, a Comic Sans title, and a stack of photos from beach trips, Crow Hill Pond, family dinners, Christmas and birthday gatherings, Alan's boat, and goofy little kid moments with Shannon, Joseph, Patrick, Cormac, Lisa, Jenny, and others.
What I like about this page is that it follows Michelle through a whole stretch of family life. There are beach photos from Rhode Island, pictures around Crow Hill Pond and Crow Hill Lookout, photos from Tim and Marty's house, and the kind of casual family snapshots that probably did not seem historic when they were taken, but become more important with every year that passes.
Michelle is my niece, and she later built a life of her own out west in Flagstaff with Phil and their children, Rowan and Aylah. That makes these older photos feel even more like part of a larger story. They show Michelle as part of the Massachusetts family world, before all the later chapters, places, and generations unfolded.
The page can always be expanded later with more exact dates and names, but for now I wanted to keep the original captions, preserve the photos, and give the whole collection the same warmer, more modern treatment as the other family pages.
A family page that can keep growing
This updated version keeps the original photo order and captions but makes every photo larger, clickable, and easier to browse on a modern screen. Some of the captions are simple because that is how the old page was built, and that is part of its character. More stories can be added later as the memories come back.
For now, this page keeps Michelle's photos together: beach days, childhood pictures, family gatherings, Crow Hill, Alan's boat, Tim and Marty's house, and the goofy-face moments that make old family pages worth saving.