Documenting My Favorite Person

So this weeks blog is a little different than my previous ones. I was having trouble figuring out what I wanted to write about, so I sat and thought about it pretty much all day. I didn't know if I wanted to do something informative, something fun, or just something! I had my portfolio sitting by me and I started looking through it, I came to the photos that I had taken for my Documentary Photo class last Spring and started thinking how much fun I had photographing my great-grandma. She is going to be 93 this November, her mind is fading at a fairly normal rate, it has been so gradual that I actually didn't get emotional over it. It hurts that she no longer knows me, but I remember all the times I have had with her and what a wonderful grandma she has always been. She is an amazing woman and inside her mind are hundreds of stories from her childhood and adulthood locked away. I wish the mind was something that you could look into because the one thing I miss the most about her being "with it" are her stories. Luckily, I heard them A LOT while she would baby-sit me when I was a youngin', so I can recall a good amount of them :). So, I walked downstairs (because she lives right below me) and I started to photograph some of her things.

 

 (pictures of me and my brother)

When I was done doing that, I went into the kitchen and found her sitting at her table eating a Little Debbie's Crumpet and drinking tea. She didn't hear me (she really doesn't hear much of anything) so I just took photos of her sitting there. When I was ready to disturb her I walked up and put my hand on her shoulder and felt her jump like she always does, she then laughed and asked if I wanted her second Crumpet XD.From that point I spent about 15 minutes just sitting with her and photographing her eat and drink.

 

 

I am fascinated by her hands (she lost her index finger in a washing machine a long time ago, way before washing machines would auto shut off when you would open the lid) so she only has four fingers on her left hand. I remember I took a photo of them for my Black and White Photo class three semesters ago (Spring 2010?) and it looked really creepy on film and unlike any picture I had ever taken of her. Unfortunately I don't have a digital copy of that image (too lazy to scan negatives, and the print is HUGE), but I have plenty of other images over the years and these two that I took yesterday.

 

(with Crumpet and normal face, without Crumpet and funny face :P)

I went back upstairs since grandma got a little sleepy and wanted to go lay down for a bit. I remembered that my mom told me to hold onto this bracelet that my grandma had (she hides things and this bracelet is special, it has her initials on it, it's really old, and fragile.) I started to take some pictures of it, then momma kitty (my fat cat) decided to join in.

 And that is my great-grandma! Or as I wrote when I was in 2nd grade "grate" grandma :P. I love her very much and I hope she is with me and my family for a million more years. (I'm planning on living forever). Again, this blog entry is different, she amazes me, so I wanted to include her in my postings! :)

<3