A Moment In The Sun

My cousin (something removed) sent me a link to photos that another cousin (second?) had uploaded to Facebook. So mom and I been reminiscing about the past. Family long gone but still so close I can see every detail of them. My grandmother and her sisters were fishing fanatics and some of my favorite memories are all of us fishing. Big Mama teaching us to bait a hook, or digging up grubs and worms from her yard (for the hook). Fishing at night with at the end of some dock. Boats and Lake Whitney.

"I can see them fishing in my minds eye right now ... the shirt Big Mama would be wearing, the color and texture of her skin, the most beautiful shade of brown and wrinkled from years of sun exposure. Her hands, her flat fingernails (my dad has her nails), painted but polish chipped, wedding bands and her tanned fingers. Red Avon lipstick on thin lips and short, wavy brown hair tinged with gray blown in the wind. I can hear her laughing and an enormous smile that engulfed us all ... all grandkids enchanted with her. Adoring her, while she us, but more."

This photo is my grandmother and grandfather taken in Rotan, Texas before they were married. The story is she bought these shoes for the photo and returned them the following day. Two of the most loving, giving, generous people in the world. And definitely the BEST grandparents kids could wish for.



My mom and dad, to the right.



And all of these are my great-grandmother, Della (we called her "muzzer"). She lived in a M-I-L apartment at my grandparents most of my childhood. And she always wore a belted, small print dress, usually navy, as in the last photo. Isn't it funny how all those memories came flooding back the minute you see an image.