A Gift and a Miracle in the Windy City

A few months ago Nancy offered me some lenses from Ken's old camera.  She brought them to work and I took them home to check 'em out.  Telephoto lens, a red one for sunsets, a brown one for light filtration.  Awesome!  Did they fit?  Not even close. 


Corey saw them and fell in love, but he doesn't own a camera.  I returned the lenses.  Corey called a company about cashing in a gift card he'd gotten, but never used.  The money would take up to three weeks to arrive.  He called Nance and left a message asking if he could buy the camera and lenses.  He named a price range, hung up and waited for a call.


Turned out Nance had already donated the camera and accessories to a mission.  Her son works there, though, so she secretly put him on the lookout.  It took him two weeks to find everything.  She gifted it to Corey at one of our parties, with a small speech about how Ken would have loved for him to have the camera.  Oh, and "don't take it apart."  (Woman knows my son.)


Corey's camera love only grows stronger.  We have acquired a copy of the manual, a non-mercury battery to make the cool extra functions work and film.  When I mentioned to Nance that Corey knows everything about his "1964 Pentax Honeywell 500," tears welled up in her eyes.


"That's right.  Ken bought it in 1964 when he was 16."  She's delighted to know that he appreciates something that Ken loved.


I am in awe of my son blossoming because of a piece of equipment. 


Tom's recently married brother is a photojournalist.  Corey was excited to show him the goods.

He made sure to buy plenty of film for the wedding.  Joining him on the top tier are Tom's other brother, Matt and Chris' friend, Matt (also a photojournalist), who was the wedding photographer.  (Aside from Brother Matt's pocket camera, I'm pretty sure our Nikon D60 was the smallest... and least decked out camera present for the entire weekend.)

Corey shares many of his mom's social graces, especially from when I was his age.  So he's frequently tense and quiet at gatherings where he doesn't know everyone very well.  This was taken at dinner on our last night.  Eight people were in our party, which might not sound like a lot if you're an extrovert, but he is not.

Relaxed and happy... with the camera close, of course.  And it wasn't just these snippets of our weekend for which I have evidence. 


On the last morning, the four of us went down to breakfast.  The cafe only serves mediocre breakfast in the mornings, and Corey claims not to eat breakfast food (I must have imagined that we go through boxes and boxes of cereal... and cartons of milk.)  He asked if he could just wait for us upstairs in the lobby.  When we came up, Tom said, "Looks like Corey's holding court."  It didn't even register for a minute what he meant.  Later on Corey told me all about the woman photographer and her friends that he'd been chatting with.  What?!