Theme: Favorite Picture | Images: Click on many to enlarge
Mabel Marion ANDREW, Mar 1948, Duncan BC Canada I'm not the only one who chose this as their favorite photo of my mother Mabel Marion HENSON TAYLOR (nee ANDREW). The caption on the back, written many years ago, reads:
"This is my favorite.
Mabel, & crocuses - March 1948
Beneath our bedroom window. East."
I'm not positive, but this may have been written by her younger sister.
As the caption states, this photo was taken in March of 1948, with crocuses in full bloom at the ANDREW family home on Herd Road in Duncan BC Canada. Mom would have turned 30 the previous month. Two months before in December 1947 she had left her home on Prince Edward Island on Canada's Atlantic coast, and journeyed alone and mostly by train across Canada to the Pacific coast to join her father Harry ANDREW and some of her brothers and sisters on Vancouver Island. She left behind the snow and cold winter temperatures as well as her sister Harriet CLARK and family and her mother Nell ANDREW nee RICHARDSON who had stayed behind to nurse her ailing parents. Mabel left her job and her friends and all that was familiar. Her journey would therefore have been bitter sweet, already missing her homeland and those left behind, yet anticipating with excitement the reunion with her father and family. She would also have been anxious about the journey itself and the uncertainties about living in an unfamiliar place, and worried about what the future held in store for her. This journey had not been undertaken lightly.
"This is my favorite.
Mabel, & crocuses - March 1948
Beneath our bedroom window. East."
I'm not positive, but this may have been written by her younger sister.
As the caption states, this photo was taken in March of 1948, with crocuses in full bloom at the ANDREW family home on Herd Road in Duncan BC Canada. Mom would have turned 30 the previous month. Two months before in December 1947 she had left her home on Prince Edward Island on Canada's Atlantic coast, and journeyed alone and mostly by train across Canada to the Pacific coast to join her father Harry ANDREW and some of her brothers and sisters on Vancouver Island. She left behind the snow and cold winter temperatures as well as her sister Harriet CLARK and family and her mother Nell ANDREW nee RICHARDSON who had stayed behind to nurse her ailing parents. Mabel left her job and her friends and all that was familiar. Her journey would therefore have been bitter sweet, already missing her homeland and those left behind, yet anticipating with excitement the reunion with her father and family. She would also have been anxious about the journey itself and the uncertainties about living in an unfamiliar place, and worried about what the future held in store for her. This journey had not been undertaken lightly.
So by March 1948, Mom was just getting settled into her new life. In that first year she would naturally have compared everything in her new home to the way things were "back home", and been amazed at some of the differences. Like the much milder temperatures. Like the abundant crocuses in March. Like wearing a light spring dress outside in March. Yes, short sleeves in March! Crocuses! Truly a reason to smile :)
Captured at this time of new beginnings, this is partly why this photo of Mom has so much significance for me. She looks so happy and the future seems bright. She has probably not yet met my father Claude HENSON, and has not yet given birth to her two daughters. And she has not yet survived the unimaginable tragedy of Claude's accidental death in 1954. So I look at this photo and am glad that she is innocent of the extreme highs and lows that the next decade will bring.
Captured at this time of new beginnings, this is partly why this photo of Mom has so much significance for me. She looks so happy and the future seems bright. She has probably not yet met my father Claude HENSON, and has not yet given birth to her two daughters. And she has not yet survived the unimaginable tragedy of Claude's accidental death in 1954. So I look at this photo and am glad that she is innocent of the extreme highs and lows that the next decade will bring.
"52 Ancestors" is a reference to the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge I am participating in.
Reference the No Story Too Small blog by genealogist Amy Johnson Crow for more details.
It is giving me the much needed incentive to write and publish my family stories.
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