They pose in rigid silence,
What character left to them found
In clothing worn only to Church
Or to the photographer.
Their faces tell no stories,
Of life past or a future to be found
Just within grasp
When lives would be changed forever.
And so they wait in stiff foreboding,
Captured at a moment in time
Before everything changed,
When none of them would look the same.
When nothing would be the same.
Save for Mary Ann,
Poor Mary Ann,
Who gave them her life
As eldest daughters did in those days.
In large families.
Life stopped moving forward for her,
But the world went on turning,
Her siblings lived,
And she became old.
This family portrait was taken in the 1890's and features my Great Grandparents, my great uncles and aunts and my grandfather. In the Saturdays to come we will have a chance to look at each of them in turn for they each went on to live the most amazing lives as monks and poets and priests, nuns and playwrights and artists, architects and carpenters and builders, Missionaries to China and Mexico and Japan.
Let me introduce them to you by name beginning in the back row with William, Theresa, Alexander and Johanna.
In the front row William Sr., John, Mary Ann, Isobella, my grandfather Charles and Johanna.
*******************************
Sepia Saturday is ordinarily coordinated by, Alan Burnett of the News From Nowhere blog. As he is on a well-deserved cruise-vacation with his lady-wife. Poetikat is assisting him by posting all participants of this feature for the next few weeks. Please advise her in a comment (by CLICKING HERE) if you wish to be included. She would love to have you join us, or just pop over to see the other participants in Sepia Saturday.
