My son Matthew Flor has probably received all the Halloween birthday cards that have ever been designed. That's what happens when your birthday coincides with a popular holiday. I would say it's all my fault as I chose October 31 for a scheduled C-section. But labor started early in the morning that day anyway. So, all in all, he's supposed to have been born this day. Today is his 37th birthday, and he's become everything I could have hoped for in a grown-up son.
I thought I'd put a few of my favorite Matthew photos up on this blog today. Probably if you're not family, you won't find them all that interesting. If you are, you'll be amazed at how he's changed over the years. Here he is the day he was born, in 1969. I always thought he looked very determined in this photo and indeed he is a very goal-oriented person.
Here's the only photo of Matthew and his sibs that was ever taken with his great-grandfather Ole Slind. This was taken some time in early 1972, when Matthew was about two and a half. He's the little guy in the blue paid outfit with the big white collar, sitting between his sister Kristin and his brother David. His youngest sister Martha is sitting in Great-Grandpa's lap. Grandpa was close to 90 when this was taken and I don't think he ever saw the kids again.
Matthew was the most curious of the kids. He was always noticing things that everyone else overlooked, and was also always experimenting with media. Early on I could see that art was probably going to be his vocation. Here he is investigating a culvert in the Sammamish Slough, and showing off his self-administered haircut while he was riding his tricycle.
This is one of my favorite photos of Matthew. I shot it on the beach at Golden Gardens when he was about three years old. He's playing with his favorite toy, the big yellow Tonka truck. Even now I can close my eyes and remember all the truck noises he was making as he pushed the Tonka through the sand. And here's one of his first school photos. He was, as you can see, very blond as a child.
Matthew was a physically active kid. When he was at the Central Branch Preschool in Seattle, he was often found climbing this giant cargo net. And when we went on our frequent hikes up Denny Creek to Franklin Falls, he'd often be the first one to get his feet wet. Here he is with his three sibs somehwere along the Denny Creek trail.
We had many foreign students stay with us over the years. Here's a shot of Matthew on the front steps of the house on Seattle's Cascadia Avenue, and he's wearing a t-shirt given him by one of our Japanese students. He got along fabulously well with all the foreign students, even those who could speak very little English. His generally sunny disposition and eagerness to share helped them feel right at home.
When Bill and I were married in 1989, Matthew was part of the wedding party, as were his two sisters. Here are all four of us after the ceremony. Matthew was 19 at the time.
After he graduated from Seattle Prep, he took classes at Bellevue Community College and worked at the Leschi Cafe for my Seattle University classmate Mick McHugh. Eventually he found his way to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from which he graduated with a degree in photography. He's a wonderful photographer, by the way, as you can see from his website.
He found Kim, who shares his love of travel and art, and earlier this year they were married on Florida's Sanibel Island. Here's a self-portrait he shot with Kim on one of their trips, and also my very favorite of the photos I shot at their wedding. It's clear from their body language that he's found a life partner to whom he is deeply connected. And now they have a new house in Seattle, and Matthew's working for the Gates Foundation .
This morning when I was rummaging around through boxes of old photos, I found this photo I shot of one of his birthday parties. It was, I think, in about 1979. He's flanked by his sisters, and his brother David is standing right behind him. The others in the photo are two of our foreign students, one from Taiwan and one from Japan, and an old family friend from our years in Bellevue, Washington. His birthdays were always rushed when he was a child because everyone wanted to go out trick-or-treating. Now those days are past, but I hope he has an equally fun birthday today.
