This portrait of my father is a self-portrait taken in 1953 using a tripod. I found it in Dad's 1953 photo album. John Russell Miller from my memories was a happy-with-life man. But this was 1953. He wrote under the portrait "Gloomy Gus." Mom was in hospital for months and I was sent to my Great Aunt Frances in Ontario, which I don't remember, being too young. Mom recovered; I returned home and grew up with my happy-with-life father.
When I was an adult "Gloomy Gus" reappeared. He was at the end of his working career as a meteorologist and everything was changing. He used to brief pilots before they took off. He drew maps and plotted the weather. He loved his job. But his profession was changing and he felt cast aside, an old, unwanted employee. In desperation he retired. Then he had no job. I never saw my father so sad.
Finally he found his way back to his happy-with-life old ways by travelling, often with me, by pursuing new hobbies and learning new things, and spending lots of time with his brother Bill.
I like this portrait because it shows another side of my father. Not the belly laughs. Not the twinkling eyes. Not the amusing man who the first thing he did coming home from a hospital operation was play 10 seconds of happy chords on the piano. No. This was Gloomy Gus.
