Photo: Sunday Scribblings

This week, Sunday Scribblings asks us to consider ONE photo: Describe one, take one, or show us one! Talk about what seeing that picture meant to you or use the prompt to create a character. Who is in it? What are they doing? Why does that particular picture matter? When people have to decide what they would grab in a fire, after living things they nearly always say photographs. Why? And what is so special about that one?

My parents' wedding wasn't a big affair. By the standards of the day, it might have been a fairly big "do", but the guest list for the reception contained only family. Neverthless, this photo exists to show that the congregation in the church (cathedral, in fact!) had been swelled with a large group of my mother's workmates who came out on that August day to see Mary Eaton marry the man from Kildare with the killer quiff, Thomas Maguire. In the other photos of the day, you can see my paternal grandfather, my maternal grandmother and grandfather, aunts and uncles with "best" frocks and suits, flowers in lapels, standing stiffly and formally. In this photo, I can almost hear the giggles, feel the push and shove and scuffling that happened in the moments before the shot was taken. Some of the girls at the back are standing on tiptoes and still only have the top of their heads to be seen.

I love this evidence of my mother as a woman who was popular among this great crowd of women. They worked day in, day out, wearing rubber boots, walking ankle-deep in the chilled water that kept the factory floor cool. Their factory turned out milk products and confectionery and the workers worked hard and played well. And after a long, hard week, these women got up early on a Saturday and cycled or walked from all points of the city to witness Mary's wedding, to offer her a hug, to shake Tom's hand.

The picture has been reproduced in local newspapers a couple of times over recent years. It's part of the local history archive, really. The date: August 15th, 1953.

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If you'd like to see some more photos, go on over to Sunday Scribblings.

If you'd like to see one of my poems featured as a Poem of the Month at the Virtual Teahouse, click HERE

Won't you pop in to see the Portrait of Trixie painted by Jessie?

And finally, and most importantly, If you haven't yet read my post about Jen Ballantyne, please do. She's an incredible woman who needs help, support, caring, prayers, people to witness her experience of cancer. Thank you.