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what happened next...
mama sara
it all started in 1953...
He literally swept her off her feet. It was 1953. Under those bright, hot theatre stage lights beating down on her, he laid eyes on her for the first time. His disciplined-valedictorian-self accounted for few whimsical decisions, but asking her to marry him would be one.
One year later, after graduating FSU, Daddy Ken was attending law school in Miami when the Korean War draft began. He entered the Air Force to avoid the Army Draft, and he was getting sworn in as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force in 1954.
how a chandelier led me to the camera
Newly stationed overseas in Okinawa, he began
Newly stationed overseas in Okinawa, he began piloting B-52 fighter jets, while she was finished her Masters Degree at Cornell Univ. in NY. She was born and raised in the Big White House; very sheltered with a high value on education. 22 years later, my organized, type-A, play-by-the-rules, disciplined & educated grandmama Sara, literally hopped on a plane, flew overseas, and ELOPED with him in Japan - and so did the first unconventional thing of her entire life.
Though very educated, and from her well-to-do family, they started very modestly, building life with their own two hands. She furnished their house one end-table per month, as they could afford. Just each other.
Through the years, they overcame trials and grew stronger together. After 16 Air-Force Base moves, they finally made roots in her hometown of Quincy, FL. She saved and made a very large purchase - a crystal chandelier. She would hang this over her dining table, and it would set the standard of a new life for her family.
piloting B-52 fighter jets, while she was finished her Masters Degree at Cornell Univ. in NY. She was born and raised in the Big White House; very sheltered with a high value on education. 22 years later, my organized, type-A, play-by-the-rules, disciplined & educated grandmama Sara, literally hopped on a plane, flew overseas, and ELOPED with him in Japan - and so did the first unconventional thing of her entire life.
Though very educated, and from her well-to-do family, they started very modestly, building life with their own two hands. She furnished their house one end-table per
month, as they could afford. Just each other. Through the years, they overcame trials and grew stronger together. After 16 Air-Force Base moves, they finally made roots in her hometown of Quincy, FL. She saved and made a very large purchase - a crystal chandelier. She would hang this over her dining table, and it would set the standard of a new life for her family.
It was stunning.
glistened and lit the room.
Hundreds of pure crystals
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the reason I hold a camera...
over the next 20 years
We would learn our manners. We would tell stories. We would take pictures. We would plan Christmas.
under that chandelier
As a little girl, I'd pull out big old photo albums and look through their old black & whites. Daddy Ken would see me, smile, then carefully place a needle onto a crackly, worn Sinatra record.
Snapshots of their elopement in Okinawa. Her 1950's wedding dress. Pictures of her hair pinned up in her bathing suit lounging on the Japanese coast. I’d keep looking through these photo albums and just relive their life! She meant the world to me.
we would plan life.
We would discuss theatre and college and dreams and careers. We would learn to be poised, speak eloquently and use our manners. We would learn napkins belong in your lap, and elbows do not belong on the table.
we would learn about life & we would do life together.
i became who i am today under that chandelier.
so what does this have to do with photography?
well, everything really...
she passed when i was 15
It was a chilly December morning. We’d driven back from Tennessee the night before, when my mom got the call. I woke up before the sun in that guest room, and tossed and turned in that oak bunk bed until I decided it was no use. As the sun came up that morning, I remember photographing new blossoms in her yard, I’m not sure why. Therapy? It did something for me. Then I laid by her side from sunrise to sunset that day, stretching across her 1980's bedspread and her perfectly organized side table. Her last words were that morning to me. I walked up and started fixing her dark, silver-stranded hair for family to visit - and she began teaching me the meaning of “coiffed hair.” Because she never stopped teaching. Late that night, after the sun had gone
It was a chilly December morning. We’d driven back from Tennessee the night before, when my mom got the call. I woke up before the sun in that guest room, and tossed and turned in that oak bunk bed until I decided it was no use. As the sun came up that morning, I remember photographing new camellia blossoms in her yard, I’m not sure why. Therapy? It did something for me. Then I laid by her side from sunrise to sunset that day, stretching across her 1980's bedspread and her perfectly organized side table. Her last words were that morning to me. I walked up and started fixing her dark, silver-stranded hair for family to visit - and she began teaching me the meaning of “coiffed hair.” Because she never stopped teaching. Late that night, after the sun had gone and the Hospice nurse nodded, Daddy Ken stretched his 6 foot self across the bed and said, “My Love, I will see you again very soon.” Straight out of a Sinatra song. And then, we watched the gentlest gentleman I’ve ever met lose his heart. I literally just ran. I flung open the squeaky screen door, flew out past her Cadillac into the cold darkness. I ran barefoot down the long concrete driveway under her two grand magnolia trees, sat on the cold pavement that she drove me down my whole life, and wondered how life could go on.
I ran.
and the Hospice nurse nodded, Daddy Ken stretched his 6 foot body across the bed and said, “My Love, I will see you again very soon.” Straight out of a Sinatra song. And then, we watched the gentlest gentleman we’ve ever met lose his heart. I literally just ran. I flung open the squeaky screen door, flew out past her gold Cadillac, into the cold darkness. I ran barefoot down the long concrete driveway under her two grand magnolia trees, sat on the cold pavement that she drove me down my whole life, and wondered how life could go on.
that would not
be the end.
My babies would know this woman one day.
They would see her smile and they would see the way she loved…
through photographs.
from that moment on
I had a camera in my hand and Mama Sara in my heart.
The chandelier. They will see her legacy. They will know her story. The magic and the sparkle will live on. I became a photographer to capture your chandelier legacies. Your family story. Your sparkle.
legacy
So one day when your granddaughter
is off chasing her dreams,
she'll get to do it with you by her side, too.
