The Spectrum of Life: Remembering Boyce CH England
- Janet England
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Throughout the winter of 2025–2026, I have been immersed in the archives of my family’s history. Since my mother’s passing in 2023, I’ve been diligently scanning the photographs I brought home, focusing on my parents and siblings. The early years from the 1940s through the late 1950s are documented in piles of black-and-white snapshots: my parents and my seven oldest sisters captured in timeless, grainy grays and sepia tones.
1959: The Arrival of Color
After seven daughters, Boyce arrived like a burst of light. His birth coincided with the dawn of color photography in our home. The monochrome world of the fifties was giving way to the saturated hues of the 1960s with its vibrant Kodak yellows and deep, resonant blues. He was our "Golden Boy," the one who quite literally brought color into our family albums.
The transition was immediate and celebratory. Just three months after Boyce was born, the family welcomed its first grandson, doubling the joy and giving us even more reason to keep the cameras rolling. My sister and I followed in the early sixties, completing our family of ten; just three months before I arrived, the first granddaughter was born.
Because Boyce had broken the "gray seal," our childhood was captured in full, vibrant Technicolor. He was the bridge between the black-and-white world of our older sisters and the vivid world the three of us shared with the many nieces and nephews yet to come.
1994: The Shadows Return
We lost Boyce in January of 1994, at the height of the AIDS crisis, and the world began to lose its vibrancy. Navigating his loss meant moving through a landscape of fear and shadow. Because the era was defined by so much public misunderstanding, there was a stark coldness to the world that felt like a figurative return to black and white. Life felt drained of the warmth Boyce had spent thirty-four years providing.
The Legacy
The world grew dimmer when we lost Boyce, but our family photos remain a record of the warmth he brought us. While January 13 marks 32 years since he passed, I have carried him in my thoughts every single day. In my mind, his legacy remains as vivid as the film he was captured on.
Learn More
“HIV/AIDS Timeline,” History, updated September 29, 2025, (https://www.history.com/articles/hiv-aids-crisis-timeline : accessed January 6, 2026), authored by History.com Editors.
