Explanation: "Beauty of Loved Ones, #3"

While cleaning out my parents' attic, I was attracted to a small family portrait. I stared at the photograph, the smiles on their faces somehow comforting me.  Their gazes met mine, and I sensed their love for me, a love as real as if they were in the room with me. My maternal grandmother, Helen Claribel (Morain) Stainbrook is in this picture (bottom right corner) and is sitting next to her parents, Stanley D. Morain and Ivy Catherine (Britigam) Morain.  Stanley and Ivy met while teaching at the Kansas School for the blind.  They married and had 15 children, including three sets of twins. Stanley himself was legally blind but still managed to work the land even during a long-standing drought and assisted others who struggled with their own blindness.

Helen had four children, one of whom was my mother, Winifred Christine Stainbrook.

Poem written for "Traditional Cinquain" poetry contest, Sotto Poet, sponsor, January 21, 2026.