The Way You Were

My mother at maybe twenty years old in maybe the year 1948. The original copy of this photo is stained in places and I used a photo editor to clean it up as much as I could. As you can see she has been posed to conspicuously show her wedding ring. This makes me think the photo was taken soon after her marriage to my father but I may be wrong. This photo could have been taken as late as 1952. The ring my mother is wearing in this photo is the same ring that she is wearing on her right hand in the 1968 photo. My sister Tara has that ring now which pleases me.  Something my mother cherished has been passed down.

The other interesting thing about this photo is that my aunt, my father's sister, turned this black and white print into a color print. Hand coloring photos was a big hobby in the 1940's and 1950's and it looks like my aunt got caught up in it.  We have some other photos that she hand colored including this one of me and this one of my father.

I love the bright red lipstick my aunt applied to my mother's lips in this photo but I wonder why she did not also color my mother's fingernails to match.  Maybe it was because she knew that doing just would not be a true statement of my mother's personality.  I don't remember my mother ever wearing nail polish and she certainly isn't wearing any in this photo.