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July 12th, 2011
Baby Anthony
Toddler Anthony
Newlywed Clara
Grandma Clara’s house is full of old photographs. She has many not-so-old school pictures of her grandchildren lining her cabinets, but she also has frames full of collages of old black and white images. These are the ones I could get lost in.
To get to the bathtub for Ella’s nightly bath, we had to walk through Grandma Clara’s room. Each time, I would stop just outside the bathroom and marvel at the big wedding portrait on the wall beside her bed. It is beautiful. There’s a handsome young man, donning glasses that look strikingly similar to the ones Ant wears now. His features resemble those of Ant’s uncle, almost identically. He is smiling proudly, looking into the distance. And just beside him is a dark haired young woman. Her hair is short and her cheekbones are familiar. She is smiling too. He is 22 and she is 19.
One night after the girls were tucked into bed and sleeping in the guest room, Clara, Ant, and I sat on the sofa watching a movie. Something came up that moved Clara to jump up and walk to her room. She brought out a bag, and reaching in, she pulled out the underskirt from her wedding dress. She showed me the waist. It had to be the skinniest waist I’ve ever seen. (In fact, she probably could have rocked the last belt hole on this dress.) She showed me the bodice garment too, which was almost too tiny to fathom. She said she just kept these pieces, but threw the dress away, figuring she didn’t have any daughters that would wear it. That made me sad. I would have loved to have seen it. I would have taken it to cherish.
Her wedding garments led to her finding her wedding album and sharing it with me. Ant had been away for a few minutes as all this happened, and I felt touched that she wanted to share these memories with me. He came back a few pages into the album and we listened as she pointed out the people on the faded pages. She told us about their 20-day honeymoon (can you imagine?) and all the places in Italy they went to visit. It sounded like a dream.
(We saw “Midnight in Paris” a few weeks ago and I think I loved it so much because I am just like the main character. I long for days like the ones Grandma Clara lived in. It all sounds so dreamy and romantic, and although I know there were struggles back then just as there are today, I can never get over the nostalgia of those black-and-white eras.)
How could I not put a comment about how cute I was as a kid!
I see bits of both girls in each of those pictures, which is very cute, but I’m not sure I’d look pretty as an adult female. They’ll pull it off better than I could I’m sure.