Paul Chili

Bufniţă (Owl)

An old photo reminds me of my family tree. I can never really find it even after digging through the hundreds of pictures in an old shopping bag where we keep them all. I do end up seeing it but I always end up burying it again. It was one with my grandfather and his brothers and sister all young and around the dinner table. It was made of one solid piece of tree that they cut and formed themselves. That was the first ever photo they had together. That must have been in the 1950’s. Since then, my grandparents moved to the city of Cluj and had my father. When he reached the age to leave the nest, my father then moved to America where he had my brother, my sister, and I, who make up the freshest branch of our family tree. Every summer or so, especially in our childhood, we would go there and visit. I can’t find that photo anymore. It must be buried in the hundreds of other family photos. As large as we are. We were once small.