Tuesday 26 February 2008

Mothering Sunday

Mothering Sunday (the fourth Sunday in Lent) provides a good enough excuse to display this picture of my mother, taken in 1927 when she was nineteen.

She's on the beach at Plemont in Jersey, clearly happy and relaxed. Her dress (she'd have said 'frock') is daringly short and the arm bangle must have been totally 'the thing' all that summer.

When she was alive I had difficulty (rather selfishly) in imagining her as a child or a young woman. Much easier now, and of course old pictures like these are a great help.And here she is, in 1912, with her beloved Jumbo.

I'm not the only one to be convinced that the photographer's original compositional plan did not include a toy elephant.

I detect a glint of triumph in that firm gaze: No Jumbo? No picture!

This was taken in Toronto.

My grandfather's emigration dream was short-lived: my grandmother's homesickness brought them back to England after less than a year in Canada.The gaze again - and the grip.

This was taken in Stroud, Gloucestershire (where she was born). I guess the year is 1909/10.

This year is her centenary.

1 comment:

barrie k said...

Such a splendid Mother!
I had not seen the Jumbo photo.
Keep up the blogging,
From another son of the SM!