Lost In My Thoughts
I find myself today with a lot of alone time. As my husband and daughter are off doing other things, here I sit...well, me and the dog, at least. She is always a faithful companion.
I'm so cute!
So I have decided to spend this spare time usefully and do something I have been putting off - namely, sorting through some more of my grandmother's papers. My grandmother, who passed away a year ago last April, was always one for saving things. She clipped articles from the local newspapers, collected postcards and photographs, saved church bulletins, re-wrote poems she heard or saw, sent cards for every occasion...and then there are all the letters.
If letter writing was an art form, my grandmother perfected it. Nothing she did gave a greater reward of friendship than her letters have. She took the time to make each of them personal, to include information that person would find interesting, to chat about people they both knew, or events they all remembered. She wrote faithfully to so many people for years. Even months following her passing, we continued to receive notes of inquiry from those who "hadn't heard from Juanita."
---------------------------------------------If letter writing was an art form, my grandmother perfected it. Nothing she did gave a greater reward of friendship than her letters have. She took the time to make each of them personal, to include information that person would find interesting, to chat about people they both knew, or events they all remembered. She wrote faithfully to so many people for years. Even months following her passing, we continued to receive notes of inquiry from those who "hadn't heard from Juanita."
Granny's Amaryllis
As I sit here at my table, and filter through 84 years of her memories, it brings back those of my own. What I wouldn't give for just one hour with her around the old table with a half thawed glass of iced tea in front of me and an open box of Pecan Sandies. I guess this is what has me a bit lost today. How do I put a price to these things she had put her own value on? I see now that the value of them is not in the worth of the paper or the printing, but it is in her collection of it as a whole. Individually, they are just transitory moments that came and went, but together they create a picture of one woman's life.
No one else can have the memories my grandmother had of her life, and no one in the future can have my memories of her either - not entirely. As I look back at pictures of her family, people she knew and loved, I am more detached from them than she was, and I'm sure that in the future, someone will look back at pictures of me and feel the same sense of detachment. I think it is not that we, each of us, strive to not be forgotten by the world at large; no, I think it's that we want to be remembered at least for a little while by someone who really loved us.
No one else can have the memories my grandmother had of her life, and no one in the future can have my memories of her either - not entirely. As I look back at pictures of her family, people she knew and loved, I am more detached from them than she was, and I'm sure that in the future, someone will look back at pictures of me and feel the same sense of detachment. I think it is not that we, each of us, strive to not be forgotten by the world at large; no, I think it's that we want to be remembered at least for a little while by someone who really loved us.
My grandmother, her younger sister, and her Mom, at the beach.
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Florida, USA
Suzanne Williams is a native Floridian, wife, and mother, with a penchant for spelling anything, who happens to love photography.
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2 comments:
Suzanne,
I love the pictures on here. I come every Thursday just to see what you chose for the new week. They are all beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Stephanie. I love hearing from people and am glad you took the time to let me know how much you enjoy it. That makes it all worth while!
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