the fig tree

I first knew knew Mark from having folks down the street from his family. He and his younger brother were raised there about a block south of where my paternal grandmother and maternal GREAT grandma lived on Pate street. There was a sixties style beauty shop right next door and the elementary school was up the hill. That was a whole lotta' years ago, ya'll. Photography is a shared passion of ours and, like me, that's about all he does for entertainment. When he heard my camera was missing he knew exactly where to go to get it back, and that he did not even blinking when I asked him how much it cost to get said camera back into my hot little hands. i stopped by this morning to pick it up and he told me my sisters were gone to Memphis to check on their sister who is moving back here for rehab. As usual, it was just him and old Smokey holding the fort down. We wandered around the yard a bit and I spotted this huge green plant next to the house and asked about it. It was a fig tree, planted originally by his mother-in-law and still coming back around. Said he had chopped it down a zillion times and it still roars back to life as if Mary is saying to her girls "I'm still here!" Happy mother's day to the sisters that I'm glad to have.

All my mama wanted for her special day was to have her hair curled a bit so as not to look like a haint when home health comes back around. Daddy and I did the doughnut thing where I watched a young family with a nursing baby eat in shifts. Then I did my magic with a curling iron, trying not to burn her scalp in the process. She cried when I read her my words on a card and then the one that my brother had left. Flowers sat on the desk nearby from yet another child and his family who live far away. We are all blessed for having her as a mom and grandmother.

Of course I've been playing with the camera, snapping like crazy with not even a care about composition or blur...just the joy of framing a shot. My goal is to get a Mother's day pic of Faith and Ryder. I'll let you know how that works out.

Peace and love ^j^