There's something about a photograph that moves me. Whether its how many secrets can be hidden; looks on faces or how its the same no matter how many times you look at it. Or is it? A photo can say so many things its just a matter of how well you know the scene, setting and the people in it. Each one has its own story to tell.
My aunt has always been the one in the family to take all the pictures. We were all so grateful for it too because we didn't have to do it. She saw everything from behind a camera lens. When I was younger I would go to her house every weekend while my parents would go out to dinner or out with their friends. It seemed like every Saturday she had new photos she couldn't wait to go print out. One evening we were nearing in on my fathers 40th birthday. She is my dads sister and they have always been really close. She wanted to create something meaningful for him for his birthday. One Friday evening she told me she wanted my opinion on something very important to her. We sat down on her back porch. At this point she lived on the Ocean in South Thomaston, a beautiful quite small house. The moment seemed really special to me. I'll never forget that.
She handed me a large photo album with a bright little smiling face on the cover. I could tell by the nose that it was that of my fathers. Looking into that photo album, I see a familiar face. I see my father as a young boy playing with his sisters. Harassing them, laughing with them, making them cry and teaching one how to drive. I saw a photo of my great grandmother of whom I never got the chance to meet. I stopped on the photo and gave it a longer glance. She was beautiful. My Nana looks just like her.
Being an only child gave me a chance to get closer to each of my parents, possibly more so than other kids. My dad has been like my best friend. He's inspiring to me and I always wanted to be like him. Looking into that photo album I almost saw myself. I recognized a little tricycle in one of the photos. I remember being so excited because it looked like mine!
"That is your tricycle now." She exclaimed. "Your dad kept it for a very long time and passed it on to you!"
This made me so excited! To have something to play with that was once my fathers when he was my age. It was so cool to me. I couldn't wait to get through the rest of the photo album. There were class photos and school portraits of my dad and pictures of their whole family. Its crazy how much time has changed. The photo quality was so different! Being that young I thought it was so neat how different things were. I hugged my aunt Sheryl and thanked her so much for giving me. The final photo in the album was my dad smiling and my mother holding me in her arms. It was almost like my aunt created my fathers life in photos, it was magical.
"It's the perfect gift he will love it." I said, with a generous smile on my face.
I get so many writers who will talk about how meaningful photos are--but who never quite come across with thumbnail descriptions of actual pictures with visuals and mini-stories.
ReplyDeleteI'm not talking about you! On the contrary, you get a nice page-turning rhythm, explaining the cast of characters and flipping through your father's life in photos, making all the right decisions about how much to include.
Finding a good ending is hard; I don't think you have one here. What might work better is having your father's reaction to the album when he received it, but, as I say, endings can be tricky.
You're so right!!!!! I had NOOOO idea how to end this! It was not easy haha. I'm thinking about coming back to it this weekend and changing it!
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