The 401
FIRST PERSON
PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY OF LAUREN CLEM.
Family Travel Through their journeys, grandparents inspire a love of wandering that weaves through generations.
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HERE IS A PHOTO OF MY GRANDPARENTS IN EGYPT, the pyramids casting shadows in the late afternoon sun. My Mémère, in dark slacks and her signature blonde perm, smiles brightly at the center, while my Pépère sports the white sneakers and button-down shirt of an American tourist. The Great Sphinx looms behind them, the only other face in a landscape dominated by giants. If not for the surroundings, they could be dressed for church, another elderly couple trying to make the early bird dinner special.
For years, this photo greeted me at eye level upon entering my grandparents’ house. I’ d walk the steep hill to their home after school and set up at the kitchen table for a snack of graham crackers and milk. My Mémère, like many ladies of her generation, insisted on a white lacy tablecloth, so we positioned souvenir placemats to protect it from the after-school spread. We scattered crumbs across places they’ d visited on their travels— Alaska, Gibraltar, England, Niagara Falls, Salt Lake City and( my favorite, as a child) Disney World.
I never found it strange that my grandparents, who lived most of their lives within a couple miles of the Woonsocket triple-deckers where they grew up, should see the world. After all, my parents inherited their love of travel, and I experienced my first transatlantic
flight at nine years old. It wasn’ t until my Mémère’ s passing last year— and the subsequent sorting through a lifetime’ s accumulated stuff— that I realized the rarity of their experience. Photo albums, neatly labeled with the contents, blended family memories with travels that would seem extraordinary even to someone of much greater means. Pictures from Venice and the Azores intersperse with children’ s birthday parties and baptisms. My cousins’ weddings share space with road trips to Canada or the Grand Canyon. New Zealand, Fiji, Bangkok, Norway, Iceland, Chile, Israel, Antarctica, Hong Kong— the destinations stretch back decades and unfurl in colorful travel brochures from long-gone tour
34 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I APRIL 2026