about my granny.

I don’t know what year this photo was taken, and I’m sure she doesn’t either.  My grandmother still does this sometimes when she smiles, especially when she’s flattered or given a gift.  first she cocks her head to one side, cradles it with one hand, hugs it with the other.

Something I really like about this picture is her teeth.  By the time I was born, my grandmother had dentures, and in place of the darkened tooth in the picture above was an open-faced gold tooth.  In that same spot in my mouth, I have a baby tooth that never fell out, and in pictures (though no one else seems to notice), my smile kind of looks like hers here because you can’t see the tooth. 

Maybe she had a baby tooth there, too.  Maybe we’re more alike than we are different in these days of shifting roles and polarization.  I like to think so, and this picture helps.

see?  my granny dressed!

I asked my grandmother if she remembered taking this picture, though I already knew the answer.  She shook her head no and said, “Goin’ to church, I guess.  I’m dressed up.”

I’m very taken with the youth in my grandmother’s face in this picture.  Since she doesn’t remember when this was taken, there’s probably no way to know how old she is in it, but she looks so young.  Her cheeks have the same smooth fullness that my 17 year old niece’s do.  But she still looks mature somehow, older.  If she’s 18 here, she would have at least had one child by the snapping of this picture.  Maybe that’s what it is.

When I was little, I thought this picture was weird because of the squiggly things that seemed to be hanging out of her hat.  I didn’t get what they were for; they looked silly.  But looking at it today, I notice that the squiggly things are actually attached to the bottom of a veil connected to her hat. 

It’s the only veil I’ve ever seen her wear; I’ve never seen any pictures of her wedding day, if they even exist.  She doesn’t remember when that happened, either.