My Grandma Pushes My 365 Project
Posted by Katrina Kennedy on Feb 8, 2012 in Blog, Personal | 11 comments
If my Grandma was still alive she’d be 100 years old. She grew up during the depression, raised her family of 8 on what they could scrape together. She was widowed young and supported her family on her own. She didn’t have the luxury of luxury.
I understand why very few photos exist of her life and my own mother’s life.
I would put my camera down if I knew I needed to find a way to feed, clothe, and house my own child. It’s Maslow’s hierarchy at work, right?
My grandma’s memory pushes my 365 project. All of the photos I wish I had of her life. The mundane. The everyday. The ordinary.
I’d like to know what she ate for breakfast when she was a child.
I’d be fascinated to see her first day of school shoes.
Or her classroom.
Or the numbers on the home she grew up in.
I wish I had a photo of her hands at play.
Or at work.
I wish I had a close up of her eyes.
Oh, what I’d do to see her first washing machine! And everything she used before the washing machine.
I’d love to have just one photo of her sister doing a headstand when they were teens. I can picture her doing them as an older women and only imagine the enthusiasm she must have invested when she was young.
I wish she’d taken the time, maybe on the 12th of each month to carry a camera with her and record the details of her day.
I have a few things. Her portrait. A few treasured snapshots of her children with houses and cars and other details in the background.
I wish I had a photo of the pretty soaps she always kept in her bathroom when I was a child. The “guest” soaps. The ones no one could use. I always wondered who the guests were and remember more than once trying to convince her I was a guest.
I wish I had one photo of the two of us playing tea party on the steps of her mobile home when I was a child. I have fond memories there. Photos only in my head. I have the tea cups. And yes, I’ve photographed them.
So, if you think for one moment what you are doing is silly or unnecessary or meaningless. Please consider my grandma. Please consider all of the parts and pieces I don’t have. The things she didn’t have the luxury to document for someone she probably never thought would want to have them.
I do want them. More than anything. Just those small glimpses into her life so that I can share them with my own son. He will only know her through my stories. And in his stories he’ll have to create his own photos.
I’m photographing my life for me. But I’m okay if someone else appreciates it down the line.
Join the CaptureYour365 newsletter for daily ideas and tips for photographing the details of your life.
Beautiful post–important reminders for all of us. And I am chuckling recalling with loving fondness those “guest” soaps that my grandmother had, too! Thanks for triggering the memory.
Thank you Katrina this is very encouraging! I feel exactly the same way about my Grandma who passed away a couple of months ago. I have some pictures and stories from her life but not nearly enough!
This is the exact reason I’m doing 365. I want my two marvelous grandchildren to know about me when they are ready, even if I’m not here to tell them. Thanks for your story Katrina, it was very moving. And Happy Birthday Grandma!
Did all our grandmother’s have guest soaps? Wonderful post.
I know! What was with all of the guest soap? And did anyone actually use it?
Beautiful post. I especially love those last two lines. Exactly how I feel.
And yes, my Nana had guest soap AND guest towels! lol
This is exactly why I do it.
I have complete, crisp recall of the guest soaps – little flowers in a pretty dish, never touched by a drop of water. Great post.
Yes, the guest soaps and the guest towels. I remember shopping with my grandmother and sitting on a stool in her kitchen watching her work her old Singer machine or cooking. She loved baking cakes. Nellie Squyres. She and my grandfather Ambrose were dirt poor all their lives and they raised five daughters. She took in mending to supplement my grandfather’s meager income. My grandfather loved baseball and even when he was frail and very old he and I would toss a baseball back and forth in their tiny front yard. I have very few pictures of them, but the ones I have were actually taken by me with a little Brownie camera. When I was a kid.
This is a beautiful post!
I found this post when Jewely Bug linked up for Lots of Link Love with me this week. I hope you’ll consider checking it out, and maybe even link up with my for the next Lots of Link Love on February 25th!
http://jewelybug.blogspot.com/2012/02/lots-of-link-love.html
I’m in the process of going through lots of old family photos. Sadly I have almost none of my grandparents and very few of my mother who always took the photos. She was, primarily, an event photographer, so there are almost none of the every day events of our lives. Truthfully, I followed my mother’s footsteps as a photographer until my kids were grown. Your post is an important reminder to me to scrap for my children and grandchildren who may want to know something about my daily life, uneventful as it is.