That was Then

My mother-in-law was the one and only matriarch of my adult family. She and her husband lived in a grand apartment at the top of Russian Hill in San Francisco, with amazing views of the bay, seen through their over-sized picture windows. 

In around the spring of 2012, although they were healthy, I decided that I should spend more time with them and I did. Although they didn’t have significant health problems, I realized that, before long, they (and our visits with them) were going to change.

In several visits over about six months, I documented their apartment which was the hub of family gatherings, including the east coast contingent. It was spacious and beautifully decorated in a style that, like them, was of a different and fading generation. Eventually I decided that I had pretty much covered everything and decided to stop photographing when I visited, except for snapshots. Within two weeks, my father-in-law had a stroke and things would never be the same. They both passed away within four years.

Here is a sample of the photos that tell a bit about them and their grand lives that are of a different time.