Sunday, June 8, 2025

A Photograph for All Eternity

On the day all these photos were taken, none of the men, children, women who posed innocently in front of the camera could have thought that that moment would represent them for all eternity.
Valerie Perrin in Fresh Water for Flowers, p. 40, ¶2 

I don't have a vast collection of family photographs.  Perhaps that's why some of the few I do have have become indelibly ingrained in my memory.  They bring me joy at odd moments when I remember them. 
  • My mother as a girl with a huge white bow in her hair, standing with her sister.  How did she keep that bow in place?!
  • My nephew as a 3-year-old in a bike carrier behind his father holding an umbrella.  Almost 60 years after it was taken, this photo still makes me chuckle when I think of it.
  • My grandfather's family sitting on a hill in the grass with half the family looking as angry as all get-out, some of the others with snickers on their faces.  What happened in the half hour before that photo was taken and who will be in trouble after they get up?
  • My father as a young man in work clothes standing outside the barn with a pipe in his mouth and thumbs hooked under his arms.  A show-off, or did he manage some great accomplishment?
  • My grandmother, my sister and I, and our cousins coming up from the lake, soaked to the bone.  I remember those summer days.
  • My great-grandfather Fred as a young man with a bald head and big mustache.  I always imagined him as tall with lots of dark hair.
  • My great-grandmother Elvira standing with one of her daughters, with both their heads tipped to their right at the same angle.  Does she have the same eye problem I have in which the lenses align only if her head is tipped slightly?

Some of these photos make me laugh, many I wish I knew the background stories.  Others I'm just grateful to have.  And I'm sure, as Valerie Perrin says, none of the people probably imagined they'd be remembered this way for all eternity.

Do you have photographs of ancestors that are indelibly imprinted in your mind?

—Nancy.

Copyright © 2025 Nancy Messier.  All Rights Reserved. 
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4 comments:

  1. Nancy, I have many special photographs, both vintage and more recent. I'm the person in the family who is always taking pictures.

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    Replies
    1. That's a good thing, Colleen! I always intend to take photos and then I get side-tracked visiting. I really wish I had more photos of my ancestors.

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  2. Great photos with great stories!

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