Most of the people in the above photo would not be here were it not for Jim’s letters to Thelly. Four of five of Jim and Thelly’s children are seated in front with significant others and children in the back row. From left is Steve McLean with his wife Laura behind him, Susan McLean Mullins, with her two children Travis and Koren and her partner Dave behind her, Bruce McLean with his son Elliot in his lap and his daughter Maegan and his partner Amanda behind him, and Chris McLean with his wife Lisa and children Liam and Lucas behind him. Not pictured is their second child Kathy McLean.
The photo was taken in 2018 when the family gathered in Maine to lay Jim and Thelly in their final resting places. Prior to his death in 2017, Jim had requested that his ashes be mixed with Thelly’s, who had died in 2010, and that they be split and put in two places. One set of ashes was to be spread in Lake Maranacook in Winthrop, Maine. The family visited the lake on-and-off starting in the 1960s. Family visits continue and are a highlight of the year. The other set was to be buried at a McLean family plot in Freeport, Maine, which happens to be a short drive from the lake.
A year later Chris and Lisa found the letters and when the family returned to the lake in 2019, they began reading some of them and this project began.
— Bruce McLean, August, 2023