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.