i've mentioned before that i am typing up my mom's autobiography. it's long (and it's only the first 23 years!) no, i don't get to it as often as i'd like. typing is kind of tedious for me. my speed is ok, but my accuracy is lousy so i have to go back and correct things all the time. i can only do so much in one sitting. i realized that i didn't have very many pictures to reflect the times i was writing about, so one of the things my sister and i did while i was in michigan was to pull out those old, old albums.
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| (the baby) |
we found quite a few pictures that correspond with what i'm writing about, so now i've been busy scanning about 100 photos of my mom. not the way i knew her. nope, these almost seem like a different person. a young girl laughing with her friends. living in the times she was born to. living, for the most part, the way she was expected to.
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| (far left) |
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| (far left) |
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| (front) |
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| (right) |
this project has done things for me that i did not expect. i find myself thinking about her. a lot. wondering about her. trying to rationalize this portrait she has painted of the young innocent girl with the woman i knew as my mother. it's been both eye-opening and challenging. she was a good girl - both in the image created by her own hand and in that which i have of her. rarely stepping outside the box of expectation and seemingly content to be there.
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| (rear left) |
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| (right) |
so am i my mother's daughter?? i have often stepped outside the box (as any of my family members can attest to) and continue to do so. i so much prefer a boxless life. but i often wonder where this tendency came from. i do not see it in my ancestors, so maybe it is just the times and culture i grew up in. the sixties were like that, yet i feel it goes deeper. that even if i had grown up in a different era i would have had trouble conforming.
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| (my paternal grandfather's family) |
so i guess i'm glad that i'm living in this day and age and in this country, where we have the freedom to step outside of our boxes without experiencing dire consequences. and i'm also so very, very glad that my mother took the time to document pieces of herself that i would have had no other way of knowing. so,so special.
Oh Patty..this post was so beautiful! You have such a good mind, and with it you bring such literary talent to all who stop by to visit. These photographs were lovely. Simply Lovely! It is so amazing to look back on an era clarified by such images. There's a dialogue taking place in each captured moment..that when observed later in time can be both cherished and inspirational.
ReplyDeleteI'm unlike anyone within my family as well. Boxlessness runs deep within me so you are not alone. I suppose there really isn't any simple answer to why we are set apart from the family-fray. But I do know I'm happiest being who God created me to be..despite my parental origins. I sense your happiness as well. Hugs of Happiness & Friendship, Terri
Such a wonderful and important mother/daughter project. So good to get to know our mothers as 'people'..and not just who we think we know them as. And - always a lesson to be learned in 'who we are'!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely post. My mom wrote down her memoirs of her first 18,19 years. It is fascinating to read and see the young girl in her. I wish I had more memoirs of her life during the war and when she was a refugee, the years after the war beside the stories she told me. I want to keep it alive for my daughter. This post is very inspiring.
ReplyDeleteIt was so ironic to find your post today. I also have been thinking a lot about mother today since I came across a box of doll clothes she made for my favorite doll so many years ago. I have been waiting to show that doll to my young granddaughters--who all love dolls. As I looked at the intricate detail of the snowsuit, hat, and little mittens she made as well as the other outfits, I realized that I never really appreciated all the time that she put into making such a wonderful Christmas gift when I was young. As Grandpa used to say, "Too soon old, too late smart." Thanks for sharing this precious pictorial history of mom.
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother wrote her memoirs... such a wonderful gift.
ReplyDeleteI loved looking through your photos... really made me smile.
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This is so special patty. I love that you are doing this. You are able to see things in a way you never did before. That is very special and very rare.
ReplyDeleteI see so much of you in these photographs, dear Patty. Especially the last picture. We are indeed fortunate to be able to push the sides out of our box and be who we really are deep inside. As you say, without dire consequences. So enjoyed this post ... it made me think. I have no photographs left, and it brought tears to my eyes.
ReplyDeleteoh, how interesting! i always wonder now what mom was like before she was my mother. because obviously, i never knew that part of her.
ReplyDeleteso is your mom still around and is it a project your just helping her with, or did you find old notes of hers?
how lucky to have that documentation!!! really, what i treasure. i so wish i had something like that of Mom.
Yes, it is a treasure. Before my mom passed away in 1997, my sister went over everything she had written to proofread, etc. None of us got around to typing it until now and I'm just realizing how special it is!! Sadly, we can't ask any questions of either her or my dad, who passed away in 2006.
ReplyDeleteHi Patty,
ReplyDeleteI loved just reading this post about your mum - so special and seeing those beautiful old black and white photos made my heart well up... What an incredible treasure of a project!