So, many bloggers have a “Wordless” something post where they add a picture with no caption or explanation.  I thought I’d do something a little different since I am rarely never wordless and in fact have many, many words to share and do so quite often.

I decided to browse through my iPhoto album on my Mac which includes new and old photos…and stop on the one that evoked the most emotion.  What I stopped on was this sweet woman:

It is my great-grandmother, Myrtle.  She was my “Ma”.  She was everyone’s “Ma”, really.  Her picture reminds me of many things…

• ear-bobs and ruffled shirts
• exquisite clothing
• frozen pizza with added toppings like ketchup and bacon
• her art…capturing flowers or birds or fruit, in the most amazing of ways
• Richard Petty
• chicken pox
• panty hose and black shoes
• sugar
• her poised demeanor
• a formal “front room” where the Christmas tree was placed each year
• low-pile carpet
• her chair in the corner where she’d read or sew or talk
• the gift of gab…she loved to talk (and I loved to listen)
• her art supplies under the stairs
• claw-foot tubs and the walk through between closets
• attics full of treasure
• my first Papa
• thimbles
• the stool beside her bed, the cause of many falls
• Psalm 23 (on the wall beside her bed)
• pies cooling on the porch
• pecan trees and squirrels

Basically, it takes me back to being a child.  Of my mom letting me stay with her when I had the chicken pox.  She folded out the couch for me and took such good care of me.  She waited on me and enjoyed it.  So much.  And what she probably never knew was, having chicken pox was one of my favorite childhood memories.