#35 of 52 : JERRY AND DONNIE

External Photo Clues:
Handwritten on the back: “July 27, 1958”

Imagine:
He’d worked in the mill most his life.  Bought one of those little mill boxes they called a house, just across the road from the mill and did his time till retirement.  It was easy work, borin’ most days.  He tried his hand at marriage but the Vietnam had changed him or maybe he just wasn’t cut out for marriage – he didn’t know, didn’t care anymore.  He liked his life but he sometimes wondered what life might’ve been like if Donnie was still around.

He didn’t normally take the picture far from his bedroom, but he hadn’t slept in there since he got sick.  He’d been sleepin’ in his chair in the front room and that day it was sittin’ on the table beside his chair when that nurse showed up.  Useless woman, even for a nurse – one of those women his old friend Arnie would call a “too much” woman.  Talked too much.  Wore too much perfume, too much makeup.  Knew too much, or thought she did.  Let you know too much about her kids, husband, family, like he cared.  He didn’t ever want to meet the man who put up with this woman long enough to marry her and give her kids.  That man probably drank too much just to put up with her and that couldn’t be a man he’d like. Continue reading The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 35 →

#34 of 52 : AUNT CATHLEEN AND MOTHER

External Photo Clues:
None

Imagine:
It slipped from Aunt Cathleen’s Bible, fluttering delicately to the old rose rug – it was her favorite back in the day.   I just stared…the picture was very familiar…OK…I remember…Oh yes, I remember….

Auntie Cathleen was livid.  The hatred in her stare, her long gloved fingers clutched in such tight fist.  Cold chills run up my arms and I actually shivered thinking back.  She had refused to even look at the camera…Yep she was ready to fight.

She had come to take me away, again….She being my Mother and on her fifth marriage. This one like the others was “the one”….”her prince charming”….  If I had known about such things back then I would have said, “Mother you don’t have to get married just to have sex…”  Whoa, what an uproar that would have caused. In 1939 that would have been sacrilegious words.  You did not know your mate in the intimate manner until you were married.  Now-a-day couples do…as my Auntie Cathleen would say it, “sleep together” before the wedding night.

I turned 79 years old today and I believe I have arrived at the age where I can say the things out loud that I only use to think…That’s one of the perks of getting old and senile. I can now say it and no one is really shocked.  Oh, they pretend they are but most of the time their glad someone just come out and said it. Continue reading The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 34 →

#33 of 52 : OLIVIA AND PAPA

External Photo Clues:
None

A Note From Quentin:
This story was written over 25 years ago by a Grandfather, about a Granddaughter.  In April 2011 the Grandfather passed away, and the Granddaughter received the story as a gift.  This story was slightly modified by the Granddaughter, and the image selected for it, for The 2011 Imaginary Family Project.  Enjoy!

Imagine:
She has always been my favorite grandchild. Her smile can turn the worst of days into precious moments you never want to end. Ever since Olivia was two years old, her uniqueness has been apparent in her selflessness that is unmatched by any other I have ever known.

In rare occurrences, Bernadette might have known of Olivia’s existence. It is hard to say. Olivia, however, is quite aware of Bernadette, even though the two have never met and never will. For Olivia, Bernadette is an image of unknown quality known as great-grandmommy, a person who exists for her mainly because of Nani’s sadness. Bernadette is ninety-two; Olivia is six; and Nani is Claire: Bernadette’s daughter, Olivia’s grandmother, and my wife.

Claire is sad because her mother, Bernadette, has entered into the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease, and I am telling this story because I am struck by the natural empathy of a little girl who has not yet learned to harden her heart in an attempt to cope with an imperfect world. Hopefully, she will never learn. Continue reading The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 33 →

#32 of 52 : VELMA AND PAUL

External Photo Clues:
None

Imagine:
   It all started on Thanksgiving Day that winter the lake froze solid.  All the family had gathered, some travelling in from Kansas, others just from the next county.  It was a standard family affair wonderfully complete with too much food and twice as many children as the year before.  The women cooked and giggled, and the men smoked outside and talked about politics, crops, and religion.  Everyone was generally too busy to notice that a romance was budding between two young people.

When she first saw him, he had been looking at her intently, trying to figure out her age.  Some vague impression told him she was about two years his junior.  Even the girls in his class at school were not so grown, not nearly so womanly.  Yet here she stood, wearing perfume and lipstick, chestnut hair let down in smooth curls and parted on the side instead of yanked back in the standard girlish ponytail.  Once he was caught staring, hot color flooded his cheeks. Continue reading The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 32 →

#31 of 52 : BERNICE

External Photo Clues:
None

Imagine:
“I wasn’t saluting. I was pushing the hat out of my eyes.”

We aren’t surprised to hear this from our mother. Whenever we find old pictures she has to correct the ideas she imagines developing in our heads.

In the wedding album: “I wasn’t smiling about getting married. I was laughing at your father for spilling wine on his shoes.”

With infant versions of us: “I wasn’t posing for a picture. I was asleep on my feet, thanks to you, and the flash startled me awake.”

In any photo in which she is touching us: “Somebody had to wipe the crud off of you.”

We are sixteen and fourteen when we find it, and mom claims to be fifteen in this picture. It seems impossible that she’s not just playing dress-up. But she lied about her age to follow her husband who’d shipped out a week after they’d eloped. We feel as if we want to protect this girl, sandwiched between our ages. Continue reading The 2011 Imaginary Family Project – Week 31 →