pennyroyal: July 2009

I heard a quote that said, "You don't take a photograph. You ask, quietly, to borrow it."

In seeing these pictures of my grandmother, Edith Matthews Sadler; my grandfather, John Sadler and my great-grandparents Sam & Edith Matthews; I feel like I've borrowed a mere second in their lives. A day that was lived long before I, and even my parents, were born. I will never know what they did that day; their conversations and anticipations or what inspired the person behind the camera to take the shot, but I love knowing that shortly before or after this picture, there was a laugh let-out, a comment made, plans carried on with.

I had the opportunity to know my paternal grandparents, John & Edith ("Edie") Sadler, very well. Their presence in my life no doubt shaped who and what I am today. But as I've grown older, I've forgotten those subtleties about them that I failed to take permanent note of when I was very young. What I do still remember is Granny's lilting, mellifluous voice ushering us to take our shoes off at the door and Pop-Pop's irrefutable presence; steady, seasoned, certain. Granny's signature Estee Lauder pink lips and life-long love of the water as a true Floridian. Pop-Pop's always present coffee mug and just right dousing of Old Spice.

My sister is the spitting image of Granny. They share the same graceful manner and assertiveness. I don't know that I have any outstanding characteristics of her, other than my love of music and the very "Edie" way of walking sideways into someone when walking and talking to them at the same time. I remember her teaching us scales on the piano with the gentle tap of her finger nails on the keys and the painting of the girl on the spiral staircase that hung above the piano.

But all of these memories were things about her from later in her life. I love that these pictures show a shadow of people that I remember well, but who I did not know when these moments were captured.