I love this photograph of my great-great uncle and aunt, Raymond and Betty Daugherty. I have seen this photo so many times and don’t believe I have ever noticed the Wendell L. Willkie license plate on the front of the automobile which dates this photo to 1940 when Willkie, a hometown boy from Elwood, Indiana, ran as the Republican candidate for president against the incumbent, Franklin Roosevelt.

Uncle Raymond, the much younger brother of my great-grandmother, Thelma Daugherty Barmes, was three months older than his nephew, my grandfather, Leroy “Red” Barmes.

Betty Church, whose family lived near Summitville, Indiana, in the northeast corner of Madison County, was a best friend and classmate of my grandmother, Donna Clary.

So, two best friends and an uncle and nephew, dated, married, raised families, and were a part of my wonderful village.