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A potpourri of stories about various family members or events

Potentially a Last Photo

The Jesse Hibbard family, c. 1945
The Jesse Hibbard family, c. 1945

Consider the photo above. The people in the photo comprise the Jesse Hibbard family: from left to right, daughter Pat, mother Edna (Westphal), son Ed, father Jesse, and daughter Sylvia. The date of this photo is probably 1945, likely between April and November, based on the uniform on Ed and the events of his service timeline. At this point, Pat was already married to Melvin Volkenant and already had their first child, Barry. Sylvia was also married to Vern Erickson and also already had their first child, Karen. Because of the uniform and the formal setting for this photo (likely at a photography studio), it is a guess on my part that this was designed as a “just in case” family photo. The United States had already been involved for more than 3 years, and there were plenty of instances of boys going off to war and not coming back. Jesse himself, a WWI veteran, knew all of this very well since he himself didn't think he was coming back alive. One can imagine what kind of emotions were in each person’s mind as this photo was taken. The parents, perhaps, were relieved to be able to stage this potentially “last chance” photo. Pat and Sylvia were likely wondering if they would see their brother again. Was Ed (my dad) wondering about any of these issues, or was he like most people his age who assumed they were "immortal"? The good news is that this was one family that was able to stage another family shot like this after the war.

Published 2021-01-21. Revised 2025-06-29.

If you find any error(s) in the text, please let me know. Thanks. Contact me with errors or comments using hibbardac@gmail. [Back to the top] [About the author, Al]

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