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The Photograph
The Whole Story
As I was looking through my Instagram feed this morning, I came across a post by @kelbelle110. Kelly had just received a handwritten letter from her daughter and she was over the moon. There's something magical about snail mail. Immediately my mind went back to the time when my father was alive. We had difficulty communicating verbally sometimes but whenever either one of us had something we wanted the other to "hear" we would write it down. I have several memories of incidents that were resolved through letters. Once, as a teenager, I pulled up too close to the curb on an outing with my Mom, and scratched my Dad's cherished hubcaps! My mom's advice was to say nothing, but the guilt got to me so that night I slipped a note under my parents' bedroom door with all of the money I had (which was only about eleven dollars and some change). I told him that I would repay him as soon as I had enough money. When I got up the next morning, the note was slipped back under my door, along with the money and it said "Your honesty means more to me than the hubcap. Love, Dad".
The photo above is of one of the many letters Dad wrote to me when I was living in the Cayman Islands. In 1984, he and my Mom were packing up to relocate and he must have had a moment of nostalgia as he sorted through the "stuff" they had collected along their life's journey. I still cherish this letter and every once in a while I read it. In part it said:
"While sorting through the items we want to sell during our garage and moving sale, I came across your little tap dance shoes, Geri. I looked at these shoes and immediately my thoughts rolled back to the slap, back, step, routine you and Diane use (sic) to do in the front entry marble with those little tapeshoes. My eyes filled with tears for just a moment. Now you have two boys of your own."Almost 30 years later those two boys are now grown up and married. One has two daughters and the other has a new baby on the way. Time is moving at breakneck speed! Today I challenge you to handwrite a letter to someone you love. Put a stamp on it and send it through the mail - you will be surprised at the big impact of this small gesture. The Photographer
Geri Centonze - You probably know a bit about me if you're a regular reader of this blog, but if it's your first visit, I am a former sketch card artist turned mobile photographer. I have been totally consumed by this new mode of expression and started this blog to chronicle the journey. It turns out that I'm just as passionate about sharing the work of others, so this space also features artist interviews that highlight some of the very talented men and women I've met through social sites like Instagram and Flickr.
Find Geri: Instagram / Twitter / Flickr / iPhoneArt / Pinterest / iPhoneLife
