The first in a series of old family photos

This is a one of a series of photos from my parents’ wedding that we found in The Trunk.* Those few wedding images were separate from the formal wedding album, which I also have.

I don’t know much about how professional wedding photographers worked in those days, but this images appears to be an outtake. When my mother saw it, she said “that’s not a good photo. You can’t see the girls’ faces with the veils in the way!” Then there is the background — the guests casually exiting the church impose on the formality of the group shot. But those elements are exactly the reasons I love this photo. It is a formal wedding photo that captures a candid moment.

The guests exiting the church include my paternal grandparents (Arthur and Cecilia Lussier), my maternal grandmother (Anna Richardson) and Uncle John (Buddy) Richardson — who walked my mother down the aisle. I’m sure my mother will be able to identify a couple of other faces in that crowd

The wedding party left to right: My Aunt Yvette Comtois (Lussier), Sylvia Allard (mom’s friend), my Aunt Ruthie Murphy (Richardson), my mother, my dad, my Uncle Ray Lussier, Jeff Lussier (dad’s cousin), and my Uncle Ray Richardson.

Another thing that makes this image special is the church. My parents were married at St Peter’s Church in Lowell. St Peter’s was a gorgeous stone church built in the mid 19th century, and served the faithful for over a century. It was closed in the 1980s, fell into disrepair and was demolished in the mid 1990s.

*The Trunk is where my siblings and I stored the collection of old family photos and negatives we collected from my mother’s house. When we were cleaning the house after my mom moved to Assisted Living, we knew we needed to keep all the photos in something that would not accidentally get thrown away. The giant wooden trunk was just the vehicle. I am now the keeper of The Trunk.