Grammy

My other grandmother passed away on Saturday (my dad's mom), a bit more than a month after my mother's mom died. I won't be able to make it to her funeral in Virginia, but the pastor officiating at the service solicited input from family members and friends for her eulogy. The following is what I submitted.

Being one of her grandchildren, I have a large selection of memories to choose from. But one of the most important for me is remembering Grammy the Photographer. Whenever our family got together, we knew we were in for it when Grammy whipped out her old Olympus. We would pose for the photo, and wait as she would look through the lens, fiddle with the settings, reframe the photo again. Eventually, she’d take the picture.

Photography was one of her many hobbies that she loved. That’s why I was stunned when she offered to give me her camera equipment about 12 years ago after I graduated from college. She knew I would need a camera at my newspaper job, and she said she no longer enjoyed taking photos anymore.

I used it during my first year on the job, and looking back on the images it helped me produce, they are among the best photographs I’ve ever taken. It takes time to advance the film manually, focus manually, set the aperture and shutter speed manually. Using it makes me think more carefully. With the high-tech digital cameras I use now, it’s all too easy to fire away without thinking. Grammy’s old camera remains one of my prized possessions.

Many years later, I realized that she took time in taking photographs because she wanted so much to get it right. She was like that in so many parts of her life. She cared enough to take the time. I was blessed that she took the time to be such a great grandmother.

I'll try to find one of my favorite photos of Grammy (there weren't too many unless I took them myself; she was the designated shutterbug, after all). She is wearing a hat for Easter that looks like a nest with multi-colored eggs in it. Hilarious! I still have her camera, and I plan to shoot a few rolls of film with it just for old time's sake.