Certain pictures speak to you, and this is one of them.

This image ranks as a top favorite among a half-century of pictures in my album. Images such as this give meaning to photography.

In mid March I was choosing some additional pictures to share with Richwood friends through this website. I specifically wanted to include this one. I shot this for the Nicholas Republican at a ramp festival in Richwood in the early 1970s. It was set up on the run with the help of this young volunteer as she welcomed guests to the event. I forgot to get her name, but the picture remained in my mental index as the years passed.

Only after the picture was ready for the website did I learn that this beautiful young lady, now an adult and mother, and had lost a battle with cancer only days earlier. It was a personal loss in a sense, as if a member of my own family had been taken away much too soon.

I met Mary Angela Brugnoli just once, but she has been no stranger thanks to the wholesome, effervescent personality that leaps from this picture. Those mischievous yet friendly eyes bare her soul, a soul that belongs to a very warm person, a loving, happy, outgoing young lady whose smile could lift anyone's spirits. We met for moment, but she touched my life, this quintessential Richwood girl. My condolences to her family, my friends, in Richwood and Summersville.