‘No,’ Cris said, looking at the photo with me. ‘Frank wasn’t a big animal lover like me. He liked to keep things clean and orderly.’ Cris glanced at me and shrugged a shoulder. ‘Well, more so than me, I guess. He wouldn’t have wanted to deal with all the pet hair and things that animals inevitably drag into your home,’ he said with a knowing but curt laugh. ‘Gloria tried to bring her over here or take her to the petting zoo when she could.’

I nodded, flipping the page over. A pleasant warmth was spreading through my belly as I listened to Cris talk about my mother. A loose photo slid forward and fell into my lap. Picking it up, I saw it was a much more recent photograph. My mother was older, probably closer to the age I was now. She and my grandmother were standing next to a hospital bed where Frank lay smiling, giving a goofy thumbs up. My mother was painfully thin, her bony arm reaching out to hold the bar of the hospital bed as if she couldn’t stand up on her own. Her hair was thinner and messier, and she had dark circles under her eyes. She wore a baggy, stained Green Day t-shirt and a sad expression, hinting that she’d just been crying.

‘When was this taken?’ I asked, turning the photograph to show Rosie before staring at it again.

‘Oh, that’s from when Frank got sick with cancer the first time. Teresa came back into our lives and Gloria convinced her to get clean,’ Rosie said wistfully. Her voice broke, a hint of sadness creeping through. ‘You look so much like her, you know.’

‘Yeah,’ I said, staring at the photo. I ran my fingers over my mother’s image. ‘Man, we really did all get the same brow gene, huh?’ I laughed, looking at the matching set on my mother.

Cris laughed. ‘I’ll have to see if we can dig up some photos of my grandfather. He had us all beat, they were about double that size and he had a matching mustache to boot!’ he said, letting out a deep chuckle. It was nice to hear Cris laugh, something I hadn’t witnessed much since I met him, and I couldn’t help but join in. It changed his whole demeanor, his eyes crinkled in the corners, a dimple appeared in his left cheek, and a warmth filled his eyes. As we laughed together, I felt a tug toward my grand uncle, a connection being made.