Recently Jeff came across his old school uniform from first and second grade, when he lived in Japan as a boy. He asked Bracken if he wanted to try it on and he did. Bracken loved wearing it and wanted to wear it when we were headed to town to run errands. I was afraid something would happen to it, so was a bit nervous about him wearing it around, but Jeff said it made him happy to see Bracken wear it and that it was better than having it stored away somewhere. Jeff wasn’t concerned about anything happening to it, so Bracken wore it quite a bit one week and when anyone asked why he was so dressed up, we told them the story. Bracken is younger than Jeff was when he wore it, it’s a bit big on him, but whenever he put it on it I could tell how special he felt to be wearing the same jacket his dad wore as a boy.

P.S. Jeff took these pictures of Bracken wearing his jacket and made a collage.

P.P.S. Here is a picture of Jeff wearing his jacket at St. Mary’s International School in Japan in 1960. There were 110 nationalities at his school.

And here he is helping with a canned food drive.