MOTHER’S DAY
Backwoods Blog;
in the woods and on the road…
Since Mother’s Day is this weekend I thought I would share a few photographs of the women on my mother’s side of the family. Of course once you start to add all of the aunts, great aunts and various older cousins the list gets quite lengthy (and interesting), so for this post it’s just my mother, grandmother and great grandmother. The photograph of my mother was taken while she and my father were on a shopping trip to Boston picking out wedding rings and setting up house-keeping for their wedding later that summer. This looks like the store where she purchased her Revere Ware cookware, pieces which still reside in the kitchen cupboards at the house. She would have been twenty five at the time.
My grandmother Laura Stitham was born in 1900 and attended the Houlton Business College which used to be located on the upper floor of the Frisbee Block in Market Square. Over the years she was an elocution instructor, professional cake decorator, pastry cook, artist and loved to drive sporty cars. In the photograph you will see her posing with one of her favorites, the ’48 Chrysler Saratoga. There is also a mother-daughter photo taken in my mother’s kitchen that I recently discovered in an old photo album. The first four photos in this post are photos I had never seen until a couple of weeks ago; each one like a newly arrived image from the past that had been “on hold” all these years.
My great grandmother Cassie Hersey was born in 1881. I was young when she passed so I only know her through photographs such as these. When we are too young to remember a specific memory I think we still remember, but it’s a different way we remember. I think we remember in our bodies and in our emotional/body. Our most formative years are years we don’t specifically remember, but they are the years that get us started in the right direction (or not) and the love we experience then is what carries us forward into the rest of our life. When I see early childhood photos of women in my life holding and loving me, I know I was loved then and I can still feel it today or whenever I happen to go through the old photo album. Happy Mother’s Day everyone!
In the woods,
Dave
May 4, 2022
