Fifty Fridays #20

Since it's so close to Christmas, I've tried to find some Christmas photos to share.  You'd think there'd be lots but I had difficulty finding any.  But what I lack in quantity, I have definitely made up for in quality.  Today I have two and they are sort of linked.

This is my mother and I wish I could say more about when and where.  That's the problem with so many old photographs.  I think that Mom is probably in her late teens but it's hard to know.  I am assuming that she is at home and that the older woman is her step-mother but, again,  I am not certain.  It could be my Great-Aunt Myrtle.  Mostly, I am intrigued by the details: the tree decorations, the furniture and the gift!  Oh, my.  That must have been a most wonderful gift: a wind-up phonograph record player.  I can imagine that my mother was over the moon.  She did love music. 

This is a bit later in my mother's life.  About 40 years later.  She's holding a quilt that I made her that year.  It has an appliqued 'print' of each family member's hand.  It was made in colors that my mother loved.  And the fabric print - a tiny flower calico - is very dated to the time the quilt was made...about 1980.  I remember all the intrigue and, sometimes, the hassle,  of trying to get the tracings of those hands without Mom knowing I was doing it.  Some were traced and mailed to me.  I can remember that  she was so touched by our efforts.  And, today, it has added meaning as several of the 'hands' are no longer with us - including the hands holding the quilt.

What strikes me most about these two photos is how little my mother changed over those years.