I don’t know how to describe the experience of picking through my parents’ stuff looking for photographs of earlier days, then turning around and visiting with them as they near age 96.

My mom is still living at home, with help from my sister, while my father is being cared for in a skilled nursing home.

But the old photos create a time warp. Some show obvious signs of age, while others are as good as new.

All are fascinating. Sometimes there is pure gold, like the photo here on the left. That’s my dad, between 1939 and 1942, looking like a Hollywood celebrity decked out in the white suit (and white shoes!) for the wedding of a couple of friends. I think that my mother took the picture. At least the old negative was in a box with other photos of hers.

I caught up with my father mid-day Wednesday. I was glad to see that he was dressed and sitting at the “men’s table” in the common room rather than waiting for lunch to be brought to him in bed.

He was all there on this day, if you know what I mean. He recognized me immediately and tried to introduce me to the other men at the table.

“Hey, this is my son, Ian. Do you know my son?”

There may have been a few sparks of understanding around the table, but I wasn’t really sure of that.

I told him lunch was on its way, and he said, as he often does, “Oh, I’m not having any. Do you want it?”

Usually, by the time the tray is set out in front of him, he’s forgotten that he wasn’t going to eat.

“The orange looks pretty good,” I say, pointing to the cup of cut up fruit. He picks up a spoon, moves a slice of orange from cup to his mouth. Chews. His eyes say the taste was right. He eats another.

By this time he tells me that the food smells good. He moves to the main dish with a tentative dig of the fork. He gets food that doesn’t need chewing, by and large, ground meat, sauces, rice. Once he starts eating, he’ll usually eat everything. It looked like this would be one of those meals.

I admit to still coming to terms with the images, separated by 60+ years. Past and present are all here. I have to make a print of the wedding picture to show him, as he has a hard time looking at the computer screen. Somehow holding a photo in his hands makes it tangible and more able to dredge up useful memories. I want to hear what he recalls. Where did that suit come from? Is it the same one in another photo taken just before he arrived in Hawaii in 1939?

Then and now. Click on either photo for a larger version.