Photo of the Week 2016-05-09

It's been a year of reflection and much has changed since Mother's Day last year. Approaching the anniversary of my mom's passing, I often find myself deep in thought, reflecting on the journey that has brought me to here and now. There are a number of triggers that send me off again ...

... like when a cousin recently asked if I would go through my family photos to see if there were any of my aunt to use for a slide show at the celebration of life service they had planned. Every time I go back into the albums and envelopes I'm in for an adventure. This time, I found a small B&W photo of my mother holding me in her arms. I couldn't have been taken very long after I came home from the hospital for the first time. Finding this is what moved me to go and visit the Riverdale area of Toronto last week. To the area where mom and dad lived when I was born (last week's Photo of the Week was a result of that trip) ...

... I also knew that with Mother's Day coming up, I had to scan and post the image in memory of her. Once I began cleaning up the file from the scan, I noticed the back of a chair over her right shoulder, there was something familiar about that chair ... I'm not sure how, from such a small section of it, but I recognized it as one I kept when mom moved out of the house ... an idea for an image began to form. I had the thought of incorporating the chair as a link between a photo made now and the original B&W. It was a little more challenging that I had first expected and didn't work out exactly as I had planned, but it sure was an interesting exercise.

 Here is the result.

then and now

... the original B&W
















DJE

One Last Walk

On the day before I lay you to rest,
I asked you to come with me in spirit as we took one last walk,
That walk we were planning to do,
Now that spring sun had replaced winters chill.

the sun shone, 

we saw butter cups,
heard birds sing 

I shed tears and felt you with me

As you go now to be with dad, know you have my everlasting love and thanks for everything
...and for one last walk.

Doug

Photo of the Week 2013-11-04

More and more frequently, in recent years, there is something that increasingly catches my eye, making me stop what I am doing, giving me pause, sending me deep into thought and personal reflection. The "something" is my hands.

What I notice are not the scars they have accumulated, the veins that have become more prominent or the knuckles that sometimes ache. What I notice is how they remind me of father's hands, or at least how I remembered his hands to be. I'm not sure what it was about his hands, they weren't particularly large although they were uniquely his. There are also other times when I look in the mirror and see some of my father looking back at me in my own facial features, but mostly it's about the hands. I find something calming and comforting in those brief glimpses.

Then a short while ago, after attempting to sketch my own hand in a drawing exercise, during conversation I mentioned how my hands were reminding me more and more of Dad's. I said that it would have been nice if I had sketched our hands together, or had them sketched by an accomplished artist. Continuing, I thought aloud and wished I was better at it so I could do a sketch my mother's hands. It was suggested that I go ahead and do it, just go ahead and sketch them ... or maybe photograph them.

Soooo ... on a recent visit with mom, we sat talking in her room as we usually do, catching up on things. At one point she laughed and reached out to grasp my hand with both of hers. That was my signal. I grabbed the camera I had with me and asked mom to "do it again" ... 

loving hands

DJE