Gemstone
Here for the Journey
I was sitting there at a family gathering, sipping homemade wine and feeling extremely mellow. The conversation ebbed and flowed and everyone seemed to be happy enough. Even when Aunty Edith got out the old family photographs I did not notice a flash of lightening or a bolt of thunder!
The photographs were passed around, old grainey pictures with young girls and young men in the apple orchard, stiff upright young men in uniform, hopeful brides in improvised wartime wedding dresses. I received the photos as they came round to me with great interest, wondering what life was like back then.
There was a picture of Aunty Edith looking very trim and pretty in a little floral dress. Funny, as long as I could remember Aunty Edith had been a round little lady with a ruddy complexion. One of the family remarked on how different she looked.
"Well there you are my dear," answered Aunty Edith, "that's wartime for you! Everything was on ration then and we all looked a bit skinny. We lived mostly on garden produce then you know!" I smiled to myself at the thought of Aunty Edith thinking she looked skinny in the picture and sipped my elderberry wine.
"Oh yes, there's another school photo," someone was saying, "Gemma will be in the middle".
NOW I was paying attention. Memories came flooding back to me. By todays standards I was not massive but I was an overweight child. I was bullied for it in the playground and ALWAYS put right slap-bang in the middle in EVERY school photograph they took. All the pretty little girls sat cross-legged at the front looking cute.
I felt the old feelings welling up inside me and then decided not to give them space. Instead I imagined a young and pretty Aunty Edith running through the orchard thinking she was skinny. Now what were the ingredients on that old wartime ration book again?
© July 2008
The photographs were passed around, old grainey pictures with young girls and young men in the apple orchard, stiff upright young men in uniform, hopeful brides in improvised wartime wedding dresses. I received the photos as they came round to me with great interest, wondering what life was like back then.
There was a picture of Aunty Edith looking very trim and pretty in a little floral dress. Funny, as long as I could remember Aunty Edith had been a round little lady with a ruddy complexion. One of the family remarked on how different she looked.
"Well there you are my dear," answered Aunty Edith, "that's wartime for you! Everything was on ration then and we all looked a bit skinny. We lived mostly on garden produce then you know!" I smiled to myself at the thought of Aunty Edith thinking she looked skinny in the picture and sipped my elderberry wine.
"Oh yes, there's another school photo," someone was saying, "Gemma will be in the middle".
NOW I was paying attention. Memories came flooding back to me. By todays standards I was not massive but I was an overweight child. I was bullied for it in the playground and ALWAYS put right slap-bang in the middle in EVERY school photograph they took. All the pretty little girls sat cross-legged at the front looking cute.
I felt the old feelings welling up inside me and then decided not to give them space. Instead I imagined a young and pretty Aunty Edith running through the orchard thinking she was skinny. Now what were the ingredients on that old wartime ration book again?
© July 2008
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