Family Pictures

I have a wall filled with pictures of all sorts of relatives in my dining room. G-G-G grandparents on down through more contemporary relatives, preside over our meals surrounding us with a sense of family history. 

Space is always a limiting factor, so I do put some thought into who goes up on the wall. Age counts...Hiram Dietz and Mary Jane Reynolds Dietz, the oldest documented relatives, my father's great-greats, get a place automatically.

After the obligatory ancestors, pictures with good memories attached are given priority. Those marking major life events, still valid marriages, cute baby pictures of my children and grandchildren, my grandmother, my aunt and all those I love or have loved most are on the wall.

I try to choose mostly positive, sometimes comical, or occasionally even slightly absurd photos. Whatever the images, though, they never really tell the whole story. Images squashed flat or drained of color, hide dimension, special hues and subtle nuances which only words can paint. Every memory triggers another which needs to be shared.

For a very long time I also had a tray with loose photos on my coffee table. When my grand- daughter was two or three, she would come to visit and the first thing she would head for was that tray to look at pictures of herself and go through every one and ask me to tell her about who was in the pictures. To her most of those people are just as remote as my G-G-G-grandparents are to me.

I often wonder about Mary Jane and Hiram, and wish I knew more about them. It°s interesting to look at them and speculate about what their life was like in New England in the early 1800°s. They look pretty stern, though, and I°m not at all certain that I'd want to travel back in time to meet them.

A picture is not always worth a thousand words. To leave behind only photographs is not always enough. When I am long gone, and when my G-G-G grandchildren look at their own wall or tray of pictures I°d like to try to leave them another legacy--a history or a "herstory" to go along with the pictures. I'm starting my story here.

With a little luck, my story will survive, and future generations may have a chance to travel back in time when they ask, "Who is that strange looking, old lady on the wall?"

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