Old Family Photos

This has nothing to do with SL. Imitation is, they say, the sincerest form of flattery. One of my friends, 'She, Who Shall Not Be Named', has been posting old photos from the turn of the twentieth century. I don't have any photos that old, but this one is one of the oldest in my family's album. The date on the back is 1926.

My mother, the small child sitting in the foreground of the composition, was 4 years old. The family lived in Kocise, Czechoslovakia. My grandfather had left for America shortly after the conception of a son, my uncle Johnny. A carpenter by trade, he traveled to Ohio where he was sponsored by another relative already there. He worked hard and by 1929 saved enough money for his young wife and family to come to America. This photo was one of a series. Once a year, my grandmother would spend some of her precious money on a picture that she sent to her husband nearly half a world away so he could see how his family was growing.

I don't know who the lady on the left is My guess is that she is one of my mother's aunts. Standing in front of her is Rose, the oldest. Seated next is my mother, Mary, and then the baby, Johnny. My grandmother, who died long before I was born is holding her son. Reunited in Cleveland, my grandparents had three more children before my grandmother died around 1934.