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Momentary Thought
There are so many conversations I wish I'd had with my Grandmother. I always wanted to record a "memory walk" conversation with her. It's one of those things where I thought of it off and on, but never got around to it. And now it's too late.
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High: One day left before Christmas vacation!
Low: I miss my Grandmother.
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Nothing, really.
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Sherry knows what "crunk" means!
Singing
`The time has come,' the Walrus said,
`To talk of many things:
Of shoes— and ships— and sealing-wax—
Of cabbages— and kings—
And why the sea is boiling hot—
And whether pigs have wings!'
Alice in Wonderland - "The Walrus and the Carpenter"
A Year Ago
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I play with my scanner.
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Dramatis Personnae
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I spent a week in August in Maine for my Grandmother's funeral. We spent one morning sitting out in her greenhouse in her back yard, going through all of her old pictures for the Memory Board at the funeral parlor. I was able to snag a handful of pictures, and this is one of them.
This is my grandmother when she was quite young, though there's no date or description on the picture so we don't know exactly when it was taken. I've often sat and looked at it (it's in a frame on my desk at work), and wondered about it.
Was this nineteen-year-old Laura Hill, smiling in anticipation of her upcoming wedding to my grandfather? Was he behind the camera, asking her to pose for a picture to take with him during his military service? Or was she posing for one of her eight older siblings, dressed in her Sunday best and on her way to church? Did she have a gaggle of girlfriends that she went to USO functions with, who took this snapshot of her? Or was she quiet and shy and pulled in front of the camera under protest? Was she going to a dance? A bake sale? To work? To one of her sister's or brother's weddings? Was she on vacation somewhere? Or in her back yard?
There's so many questions I don't have the answer to. But this the story that I think of when I look at this picture:
********************
Laura rushes down the stairs from her bedroom, and pauses in the hall to take a final hurried look at herself in the mirror. She pushes open the screen door and sees Fred waiting for her, with a bouquet of purple lilacs tied with a cream colored ribbon. He pushes them somewhat gruffly at her, not used to courting - he softens and smiles as she takes them and kisses his cheek. He's learning, after all, what it means to cherish someone. Laura waives at her sister, watching them from the kitchen window. Taking Fred's hand, they walk down the path away from the house.
They pass Fred's house on their way to nowhere in particular. "Wait," he asks Laura, settling her in the rocking chair on the front porch. He runs inside, and is gone for a long moment. Restless, Laura gets up and wanders about the front yard, looking at the garden and enjoying the warm evening. She smiles to herself as she thinks of her love, and how his rough edges have been smoothing as of late.
It takes Fred some time to find the new camera his older brother bought him for his birthday. He finally finds it stuffed under some blankets at the foot of his bed. As he comes to the door, he sees Laura. He watches her for a moment, and admires how she looks framed in greenery and touched by the soft light of the evening.
He calls to her, "Stand right there," and Laura pauses and smiles shyly. Fred snaps the picture, then holds his hand out to Laura. She moves to him and takes it, as he slings the camera over his shoulder. They again walk down the path as fireflies begin to appear and hover in the shadows. The air is still, and fragrant with the growth of summer and the damp earth beneath their feet. They draw closer together, heads leaning in, and talk of their budding hopes and dreams of a life together. The evening will be short, and the time bittersweet, but all the more cherished because of it.
Tomorrow he's off to war, and tomorrow she'll mourn his leaving. But tonight, tonight is theirs alone - a static moment in time.