I’m sorting family pictures this month, making piles of who gets what from the Haynes family photo albums. After Dad died last June, we found tubs and shoeboxes and plastic bins and entire furniture drawers filled with ephemera, memorabilia, sentiments, and photos. And just about everything else. Photos are all over the place in the house, but it’s work that has to be done. And I’m likely among the last generation of humans who will ever do this sort of thing now that pictures are mostly digital. I wish all of this were reduced to one simple thumb drive, but the upside is that I’m walking down memory lane and have found a theme for the month of June: family pictures. Perhaps the easiest way to let go of old photos – and lingering grief – is to give them their proper moment in the spotlight and then share with others who can decide whether to keep or discard them. I have already tossed many, but the remaining ones had some reason to land in the truck to bring home on our last trip south.
Today, I am sharing a few photos of my mother when she was a young girl. I’m using the acrostic form to capture the spirit of Miriam Ruth Jones Haynes. She was a spitfire as a child, and when she became a pastor’s wife, she was a slightly more polite spitfire. She and my father were high school sweethearts, and when she went off to Florida State University, she missed him so much that she went home to see him and the rest is history. She quit college to join him in Macon, Georgia at Mercer University as he finished his degree and went on to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. I get my love of the outdoors from her. I wish I’d gotten a whole lot more of her, but here we are…..
Miriam
Made most of her own clothes on her sewing machine
Including her wedding dress and prom dresses
Ran around on a mule named Festus with her cousin Billy
Ivory and ebony musician extraordinaire
Avid fisherman, fly fishing in rivers
Marksman, too : believed she was Annie Oakley
Common Threads 
Kim,
I love seeing these photos of your mom. What a hottie! And wowza on those dresses. Amazing. I’m glad your mom kept her spitfire personality. From what I’ve learned about your father, she needed it! It is kind of sad to think about the demise of old photos and the way thumbing through them can bring people together. I’ve been thinking g about what will happen to my thousands of digital photos when I die and wondering if I should curate some in a more tangible place for my children and grandchildren.
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Yes, Glenda – she was the ONE person on this planet that Dad would ever listen to. I don’t know how she managed him, but she did. I’ve landed squarely on digitizing the photos and sharing them that way with family members. I don’t have the space for storing them, and honestly, even if I did, I don’t know I would ever pull them out and enjoy them. Thanks so much for always reading and encouraging me.
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Yes to all of this! Pictures are treasures of stories and also a source of wonder of what to do with them! You capture this challenge in your writing.
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Thank you, Melanie! I do love a picture to inspire writing.
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These are wonderful, Kim! Your mother was so beautiful and quite a lady! I wish I had the privilege of meeting her. đź©·đź©·
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Thank you, Jennifer! I’m thinking I’ll be digitizing these photos over time and sharing them with you and Ken and other family members in Google folders. It may take a while, but hopefully that’ll be a good thing – – I hope to have more of it come August, and it will fuel my writing for the rest of the year.
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What a wonderful tribute to beautiful Miriam. I have been sorting through my mother-in-laws photos. She died a year ago January. I don’t know some the people in the photos so it’s been a sleuthing mystery game for me and her sister.
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I understand that challenge after saying the same thing – – I wish the photos were labeled with the names, year, and place. It’s hard to figure some of these faces and places out. But there is joy in the thinking.
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Oh, your beautiful mom! What treasures you’ve found, and what a wonderful tribute to your mom. I enjoyed reading about your mom and the love story in which she and your dad were main characters.
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Thank you, Lori! I’m writing stories and sharing photos so that they are digitized instead of in hard copy. I appreciate your sweet words.
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YES, she was a woman of her time and yet clearly ahead of her times. This process of going through and culling photos has already been pretty intense for me and I suspect from this powerful post, for you as well. It brings up many feelings and unanswered questions as well as providing some full circle moments. I’ll be in need of a vacation come July!
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Anita, agreed! This is a process. I am taking it slowly – – one day at a time with the pictures. It is an honoring of moments and memories, and then a release. Cathartic. Therapeutic. Needed. And I’m with you – I will need that vacation, and next month’s theme is travel…..I can’t wait. I’m already figuring out where I would like to go. I have a mountaintop cabin in mind. Thanks for being a writing partner on this journey.
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Kim,
I admire how you pick a monthly focus for your writing. I’m crazy impressed that you’ve even planned out your focuses for the rest of the year!
And what a good focus family photos are. Love these photos of your Mom. Looks like she has a glint in her eye in each photo. Those dresses are fantastic, too. My Mom also sewed beautiful clothing.
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Sharon, thanks so much for your blog post today. It’s a keeper, with all the reflecting on what you love about retirement. You inspire me to keep that list and mark that date to reflect a year from now. I needed the organization in my mind to think ahead to the writing I will do, and the “outline” gives me a way to simmer the ideas. Thank you, friend, for always being so encouraging and inspiring me.
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Appreciate your support as well, Kim.
You’re going to love retirement!
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Sorting through a life feels like you enter a time warp. When you surface, the present returns — 3 hours later. Thank you for sharing your mother’s life. There’s nothing like the juxtaposition of delightful subversion and being part of a pastor’s family.
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Amen to all – the time warp and the present, and the family dynamic of pastors.
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I love your mother’s style and verve, and her haircuts!!!
This line is both poignant and suggestive to me: “…the remaining ones had some reason to land in the truck to bring home on our last trip south.”
As well as this line: “I get my love of the outdoors from her. I wish I’d gotten a whole lot more of her, but here we are…..”
I think you might write more from each of those lines…
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Thank you, Fran! Loved your blog of blessings and I may make a list with one of my photos just like your list. That is a great way to start the day accepting an offered egg!
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