Pictures have always been important to me! I think that if my life and circumstances were different, if I were an able-bodied person, I would very much enjoy taking pictures for fun! I always thought that maybe I could do some kind of side work as a photographer or something…
For Father’s Day, I decorated a frame that holds a picture of me giving my Dad a kiss on his cheek in my high school’s cafeteria during my ring day ceremony. I remember really liking the picture and a member of the yearbook team, gave the picture to me because she thought I would like it. I can’t really remember giving it to my Dad for Father’s Day because he would have just had surgery but there was evidence of this on the back. I always date the back of the picture I give to people.
I was thinking about this picture and the frame I made for my Dad that now sits on a shelf with a bunch of pictures in my Mom’s living room. Not too long ago, I asked her for the picture. My Mom brought it over and I thought to change my profile picture on Facebook for Father’s Day but I wasn’t feeling too well so I didn’t.
Sean noticed that the picture frame was on the desk under my TV that usually has a bunch of pictures which are in a box in the basement. He brought another picture frame out of his room. He said something like, “Oh, we’re putting out our family pictures now?” He placed a framed picture of his great-grandma and him that we gave to his great grandma one summer. The frame was at her funeral. Sean asked if he could take the frame home with him and he was told that he could.
I noticed that there was a small picture taped onto the corner of the picture frame. It was of his great-grandpa that he used for a timeline we made when he was in first grade. So there were two picture frames on either end of the desk under my television. They were of my Dad, Sean’s great grandma, and Sean‘s great grandpa. All three of these people have passed.
Sean put this picture of his great-grandma on the desk under my TV just before he left for school. So both of these picture frames have been in my living room for a while. Not too long ago, when Sean came home, I told him that both his great-grandma and his great-grandpa were staring at me all day. He asked me if I wanted him to take the Picture away and put it back into his room. I looked at him a little bit aghast and told him that “I loved them too!”
They are not my relatives but I would take Sean to their house often when they lived in Deerborn and Sean was still in a car seat carrier. I took Sean over to Canada to their condo that they had there. His great-grandparents also took me out to eat for my 24th birthday. Just me and them. We went to Olive Garden and they still clearly remember that dinner! I met both of them before Sean was born, even before I was pregnant with him.
I have recently found myself staring back at both of them and reminiscing of times I spent with them and drinking Vernor’s. It got me thinking. I always date pictures when I give people frames that have a picture. A few days ago, I grabbed that picture frame and opened it up. Well, at least I can say that I am consistent:
Once I found out that I had written on the back of the picture, I began to cry. Both of these pictures have my rating on them, back when I could still write. I appreciate both of these pictures and I am not in a hurry to move them. These pictures make me think fondly of all of them.