Getting to Know Someone Through Pictures

My paternal grandmother died over a year before I was born.  As I was growing up, some people told me I looked like her.  It was flattering in a creepy sort of way.  Flattering because those people also told me what a nice lady she was.  Creepy, I guess, because she died so young and I never got to meet her.

My uncle had the best stories about her.  Like how one time she hid one of his Christmas presents so well that she found it months later and gave it to him.  And how when she drove and he sat in the front seat, she would put her arm out in front of him EVERY time she put on the brakes.  I loved hearing all of his stories and it gave me a glimpse into what kind of a mother she was.

Maybe it's my memory, but I only remember seeing a limited number of pictures of her.  There was one that hung in my uncle's living room like she was still watching over everything in the house.  My uncle said she didn't like getting her picture taken.

One of my biggest surprises and favorite discoveries has been all of the pictures of her from so many different stages of her life.  I feel like I'm learning who she was.  I can put a picture to all those stories.

Ellen LeGates Odgers
1924-1970