Wednesday, January 17, 2018

bygone times




I have been going through old pictures today,
looking for one in particular,
but finding many others that bring back memories or stir my curiosity about
days gone by...

One cannot guarantee that recollections and stories told
will be perfectly recalled,
or that they will correspond in every small detail
with the recollections of others dear to me.

I have been reading dire things about the reliability of memory,
and things that have been passed on to me have made the journey
through many a brain, but surely pictures do not lie
and they represent a sweet and common heritage.

Here is a picture taken on my great-grandfather's porch
shortly before my grandparents left Ontario for the West.

Clustered on the porch is a great aunt and her little one,
my grandparents, my father, an aunt and an uncle.

My great grandfather occupies the rocker.
The handsome fellow leaning nonchalantly against the post is another uncle,
and to the far right my two aunts
who died in the 1918 flu epidemic.

If this was a farewell visit I can imagine the poignancy of saying goodbye.

I don't know exactly the relationship of the two young girls sitting on the steps,
but the most interesting thing about the girl who sits on the bottom most step
is that she looks exactly like our granddaughter, at the same age,
born almost a hundred years later.






Our lives are all woven together,
and the pattern repeats itself randomly,
to add richness to the tapestry.





2 comments:

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Oh this is wonderful Hildred. I never even have the right words to tell you how much I enjoy your posts. Thank you.

Hill Top Post said...

I agree with Sallie! It's a funny thing how certain traits can just suddenly reappear two or three generations later.