Photos for Headline Surfer / ABOVE: A snapshot was taken in 1980, of then 5-year-old Geoffrey A. Lopez and his sister, Gillian, 3. And to the right are the siblings all grown up, Lopez, 43, and Gillian Campbell, 41, with families of their own. Lopez posted the image on his Facebook page for Siblings Day.
KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- It's a black and white picture that hearkens back to early childhood where the kid sister adoringly looked up to her big brother -- she was a mere 3 years old and he was all of 5.
But it's a vintage photo that St. Cloud resident Geoffrey A. Lopez II proudly displayed on his Facebook page Tuesday to commemorate Siblings Day with his sister, Gillian Campbell, recognized throughout most of the US on April 10, as a customary day of celebration and not an official state or federal holiday.
For her part, Gillian Campbell was taken aback in seeing it posted.
"How cute!" she responded to her brother's social media posting. " Where do you keep these classic pictures?"
The photo from long ago displays the warmth and love the siblings have had for one another from their beginnings -- the toddler with her arms wrapped around her pre-school brother with a big smile who towers over her in a protective kind of way when the photo was shot by one of the parents way back in 1980. The brother and sister were born in New York just shy of two years of age from one another when their parents emigrated from Jamaica.
"We're of Portuguese descent," Lopez explained. "Our immediate parents are from Jamaica but the Lopez family came from Portugal. My great-grandfather emigrated to Jamaica to start a business. My parents moved to the U.S. for further opportunity."
They settled in Kissimmee where the photo was taken shortly after the parents left New York for Central Florida, and Kissimmee, which has a large ethnic Portuguese population.
Lopez said the photo is an invaluable keepsake for him because it "reminds me how close we were and as many would say, we were well behaved. Our parents brought us up with admiration, morals, and structure. With that, she’s actually in the process of building her house next to me so we can grow with our children together."
He recalled with fondness, the memories of their emerging young lives: "She used to have this name for me, 'Wawee,' And we never understood where that word came from, but she would call me that during those years. We had our struggles like any siblings."
But Lopez was quick to add, "We were very protective of each other and for sure caring. I currently have four children and she has two, both of us married."
Lopez, a Realtor with Radius Realty Group, whose slogan is "My Home Team" has had the family home team so to speak in terms of a sibling bond in his earliest memories, he is now 43, and she is just shy of 41 when she embraced him in that vintage photo hearkening back to1980.
Decades, of course, before the digital age, when the decade of America's greatest weakness perhaps -- the 1970s Energy Crisis, Watergate scandal, humiliating defeat in Vietnam, and yes, Disco, too -- gave way to the Big '80s and ushered in a tough-talking conservative-values president in Ronald Reagan.
And there was the big brother, Geoffrey, protector to the wide-eyed kid sister, Gillian, having surpassed the terrible twos and past the toddler stage. And so it goes -- one story worth telling even the day after Siblings Day, thanks in large measure to a vintage photo shot what seems like ages ago and re-appearing out of the blue as a relic in today's digital world.
About the Byline Writer: Henry Frederick is a member of the working press and publisher of Headline Surfer, the award-winning 24/7 internet news outlet launched in 2008, that serves greater Daytona Beach, Sanford & Orlando from Lake Mary, Florida via HeadlineSurfer.com. Frederick has amassed close to 150 award-winning bylines in print & online. He earned his Master of Arts in New Media Journalism from Full Sail University in 2019. He was a breaking news reporter (metro cops & courts beat) for the Daytona Beach News-Journal for nearly a decade. And Before that worked the same beat for The Journal-News/Gannett Suburban Newspapers in Rockland/Westchester counties, NY, dating back to 1989. Having witnessed the execution of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Florida's death chamber and covering other high profile cases, Frederick has appeared on national crime documentary shows on Discovery ID, Reelz, and the Oxygen Network series "Snapped" for his analysis. • Award-Winning Journalism: Florida Press Club recognizes Headline Surfer for nine stories in 2020 statewide competition. • Award-Winning Journalism of Henry Frederick.