Chapter 610: 610: Growing Old, Facing Death

So, Adrian Zhekova and Cindy took Morgan to pick out picture frames first.

Adrian picked out various sizes of frames.

When they returned, the photos were surprisingly mostly edited already.

As the photographer said, there wasn’t much that needed editing.

Even the color tone needed only a little adjustment.

So they had the photos printed and let Adrian take them away on the spot.

On their way home, they went to the supermarket to buy some nails, a hammer, and a drill.

When they got back home and got everything sorted, Cindy and Morgan put the selected photos into the frames.

Adrian was deciding on the right spots to hang the frames.

“Cindy, do you think it’s okay to put them here?” Adrian marked off a square with his hand.

It was on the side wall of the living room.

“We can have an irregular arrangement here,” Adrian suggested, “the family photo we took today, as well as Morgan’s individual photos, can all fit.”

“And put some more of Morgan’s individual photos in his bedroom,” Adrian added.

Cindy looked at the location Adrian was suggesting and nodded, saying, “That’ll work.”

“Then I’ll go get the ladder,” Adrian said.

Just as he finished, he suddenly stopped moving.

“What’s wrong?” Cindy asked, weren’t you going to get the ladder?

“I’m not sure if we have a ladder at home,” Adrian admitted awkwardly.

Usually, he didn’t need to worry about such things.

If an appliance broke at home, they just reported it for repair, and the property management provided a dedicated housekeeper for each household.

If anything needed fixing, they just needed to contact the housekeeper, so he had never worried about these things before.

“I’ll ask Aunt Jenkins,” Adrian said.

Aunt Jenkins happened to be on her way at the time.

When she received Adrian’s call, she said, “Sir, there is a small storage room on the second floor, right at the end of the hallway. It used to be a laundry room, but there is already one on the first floor, so the upstairs one was turned into a storage room.”

“There is a ladder in there,” Aunt Jenkins said, “What do you need it for? Is something broken at home? I’ll call the housekeeper to arrange for a repair.”

Aunt Jenkins found it quite strange, as she had checked everything in the house the day before.

Nothing was broken and needed to be reported for repair.

“Nothing’s broken, I just need to use the ladder,” Adrian explained.

After hanging up, Adrian went to the storage room on the second floor and found the ladder.

He carried the ladder downstairs, marked the position of each frame, and drilled holes.

Then, he nailed the nails and hung the frames.

Adrian took the ladder back upstairs.

And came back down again.

He stopped on the stairs and looked at the whole wall beside the stairway.

“How about hanging some photos here too? We can see them as we walk up the stairs,” Adrian asked.

Before Cindy could answer, Morgan excitedly nodded, “Yes, yes, it’ll look great on this wall!”

“It kind of feels like an art gallery, we can walk by and look at them as we go!” Morgan said.

“Wait a minute!” Cindy remembered something and hurried to the study room.

She took Morgan’s photo album out of the bookcase.

She had brought it with her when she moved from her previous home and put it all in the bookcase.

Cindy didn’t have many books anyway, just recipe books and some related materials, as well as ancient print editions passed down from generations.

There was still plenty of space for Morgan’s photo albums from birth to now.

She originally wanted to take the photo album downstairs.

But after picking up a few, she realized there were too many of them.

Cindy decided to simply go back downstairs empty-handed.

Adrian and Morgan were still on the stairs.

The father and son kept the same position, looking at the second floor.

They were oddly synchronized.

It even gave off the vibe of well-behaved dogs.

Cindy couldn’t help laughing a little.

Adrian raised his eyebrows, not knowing why Cindy suddenly laughed.

Cindy’s emotions didn’t fluctuate much, so even looking straight into her eyes, Adrian couldn’t sense her thoughts.

“There are too many photos of Morgan, you guys come with me.” Cindy pulled Adrian’s hand upstairs, with Morgan following closely.

“I was thinking of finding all of Morgan’s photos from babyhood to now. From infancy to the current age.”

“The entire growth trajectory hung on the wall,” Cindy gestured, “When coming up the stairs, you can see the photos from his babyhood, and each step up represents a different age.”

“But I’m only four years old now,” Morgan said from behind them.

Wouldn’t that only mean hanging four pictures?

Cindy smiled, “Yes, don’t you think it’s very meaningful?”

“For every year you grow older, it’s like climbing another step. On the wall above the staircase, we’ll hang a photo for each year,” Cindy said with a smile.

Morgan’s face brightened up instantly.

“Okay, I want it done like that!” Morgan quickly agreed.

Adrian was reminded by Cindy’s idea and said, “Why don’t we do the same?”

At this point, they had reached the second floor.

Adrian continued, “Our couple photos can be hung above Morgan’s photos.”

“Morgan’s photos start from his birth. Our photos start from the day we got married,” Adrian explained.

“The first day of our marriage, the first anniversary, the second anniversary, the third anniversary, and so on,” Adrian said.

“With Morgan’s photos below ours, it perfectly represents our family of three,” Adrian smiled, thinking that the idea was really good.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“When we have a little sister for Morgan in the future, we can put her photos below Morgan’s photos too, like a family tree, arranged in order,” Adrian said.

“For every additional year of our marriage, we take another commemorative photo. It doesn’t have to be formal like the ones taken in the photo studio. Even a selfie or a photo taken by Morgan would be fine.”

“Just like the ones you’ve taken for Morgan, they were all taken with your camera or mobile phone, casually snapped. I think that’s great. That’s our life.”

“I’m thinking, as our marriage lasts longer and we grow older, the pictures we take every year will change, as will our appearances.”

“As the years go by, we’ll reach middle age, our faces will wrinkle, our hair will turn white, and the photos from that time will be hung on the upper levels of the staircase.”

“When we look back from our silver wedding anniversary, golden wedding anniversary.”

“And then from the time when our hair is white and we’re old, look back to our prime,” Adrian spoke slowly.

Listening to Adrian’s words, Cindy had a vivid picture in her mind.

The scene Adrian described was so beautiful, warm, and somewhat bittersweet.

Bitter because they would grow old.

They would grow old and die.

Their marriage would only last a short few decades.