we weren’t, but it’s what popped into my head
I received a collage of toddler photos of me from my sister as a Christmas gift. Photos that I had never laid eyes on. I fleetingly caught sight of some of my parents’ wedding once when my grandmother let us look at tins of photographs she had hidden. When she noticed that I was looking
at the wedding pictures, she took them from me. i never saw them again. don’t recall the year, but guess it was circa the late 80s
My mother has no pictures of her wedding to my father. The marriage didn’t last long — I don’t remember them together at all. So when I first saw the photos, they shocked me. As did this one because my aunt Ida, who was a nun from age 16 or thereabouts, had it. Are there more? I didn’t ask my sister. Don’t know if I want to.
why did my aunt have these?
I thought only my grandmother had them, and afterward, my other aunt, Lydia, Ida’s sister. Although, they disappeared in Katrina (supposedly). Aunt Lydia said she had all of my grandmother’s photographs, but just when she and my uncle moved to New Orleans, Katrina hit. And they lost everything.
so the photos opened more doors than i’d thought existed, and now i have more questions than before. 🤯 did not think that was possible.
there are a few mysteries (or inconsistencies?) in my family’s history. this one seems like nothing, but it means something because of what i do know.
had to write this and get it off my chest
i received the gift a couple of days ago but opened the shadow box (for some reason, i dislike shadow boxes immensely) to fix some of the photos a bit — will eventually add something behind the background or above it so it’s not ‘shadowy’ anymore.
anyhow, the point is that — i don’t know what the point is except that, looking at the photographs, i thought: i want to be THAT little girl again. then, i heard a soft . . .
… you are
written a year and one day ago
