As happy as we all are to say sayonara to 2025, the year did provide some lovely opportunities for me to snap some sweet shots. Mostly kids and cats, here’s a sampler of my favorite images from the year that was.

During her sister’s swimming lessons, granddaughter Charlie sweetly clings to Mommy, Taylor.

Zora licked her chops for granddaughter Avery’s al fresco winter meal.

Away to the window, they flew like a flash … jumped up on the chair and threw up the (sash?)

Copycat or CAT scan

Wait, is my granddaughter a social media #INFLUENCER?

Flying high at Lake Michigan.

The granddaughters know how to perfectly pose by now.

When “Gugu” talks like Donald Duck, the granddaughters break into hysterics.

It was fantastic voicing our extreme frustration with the current regime, again and again and again this year!

I joined millions of my friends worldwide to protest tyranny.

I love my time exposure shots with my iPhone. Here, I held reasonably still for 30 seconds in the middle of the night along Lake Michigan’s shoreline.

Sprinkler time!

Cat nap? Crib notes? Feline sleepy?

Well before they found out their aunt was pregnant, the grands pretended to be, themselves.

Just days before Skye, left, told us she was pregnant, granddaughter Avery asked if she was.

Skye and Michael reveal to Taylor and James what was hiding underneath that bulky coat.

Marci and I squeeze the very last drops out of summer at the Troy pool.

You’ll never guess where Taylor and Marci found Cleveland Rest Stop Oasis Turnpike Curtis this year.

Jordan and Mike pause for a laugh between their wedding and reception.

I wasn’t expecting THIS delivery on my front porch.

John Henry walks his dog, Daisy 13, along Troy Trails in a push cart. Henry says, “She had stopped walking like she used to and the trail was too long to carry her. Now I do the walking for her. I am her legs and she still gets to experience nature; the birds, the different smells, the people and other dogs!”

Granddoggy Rex is sometimes just too cool for school.

I had such a lovely time up in Elk Rapids, Michigan, with my college roommate, Tom, and mentor, Bill.

Cleveland takes over the night watch.

My mom, center, smiles normally, while the rest of her nutty family strikes curious poses.

Mom, aka Joanne Adams Curtis, went away on Saturday, December 6th, 2025 to be with her twin, her husband, her brother-in-law and her parents in the Great Beyond. Everyone back here loves and misses her so much. Jo-Nan, as she called herself as a kid, left a lasting legacy of love in her wake. It was felt enormously and daily by her three sons, their wives, her daughter, her twin sister’s boys, their wives, her two younger sisters, their spouses, her six grandchildren, their partners and 8 1/2 great grandchildren (none of whom have significant others just yet, thank you very much).

An elementary teacher for her entire adult life, she taught Reading Recovery way waaay into retirement as a volunteer in Detroit and other school districts. Reading was Joanne’s passion. When she couldn’t see the pages anymore, the Rochester Hills Public Library sent her dozens of books on tape that she devoured. There’s never been another 92-year-arc in human history that’s experienced so much change; culturally, technologically, politically — and she had a front row seat as an original social justice warrior. If she wasn’t marching on Washington, or campaigning for liberal Democrats, she was fighting to integrate her 1960’s suburb.

Mom had so many good, dear friends that were part of her life up to the very end, including her church, Koinonia, Shang-hai & Bridge buddies at Fox Run where she lived out her last incredible eight years. She told her grandchildren that whenever they feel love around them, that’s “Gomma’s” heaven signal. But if you need something more concrete — like many of us do — as she was about to be wheeled away by the funeral folks, suddenly the lights went out in her room and we all stared at each other, dumbfounded. Lights popping on and off is her husband’s signature move from the afterlife. That was, as a granddaughter said, grandpa letting us know he’s got her now.

As much as she loved flowers, she loved children even more. And when asked, she requested donations be sent to UNICEF instead of flowers.

 

Rodney Curtis is a recovering journalist and author of four books.

Check out Rodney’s books here.