Thursday, August 30, 2012

shadow

On the back of this photo, my grandmother had written in her gracious script, summer 1924, Hazel and Carol. Her sisters stand in the dappled light of the orchard. The shadow across the face of the youngest, Carol, was more than symbolic. She died in September, 1924 of polio. The news must have come as my grandmother was giving birth to my mother, her first born. My grandfather, no stranger to grief gently suggested that they give my mother the middle name Carol and held the news, such heavy news, himself, until his wife could bear it.

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