This is Walter and Betty, before Walter died during war and Betty had to marry another man. This is before Betty named her son with this other man “George Walter” …and decades before George Walter grew up to have his own family that eventually included me.
I never knew my grandmother. She died when I was in kindergarten. And the stories about her, my only way of relating to her, are not positive. She led a life that shaped her into a brutal and brittle person by the end. But at this one beautiful point in her existence, she was vibrant and full of a sweet silliness that I admire. As her life marched on, she understandably lost touch with this part of her personality. In my life, I keep this photograph as an everyday reminder to not let the same happen to me.
Stay loving. Stay silly.
