We accept:
The Power of Photographs to Heal
Together Again
On a bitter cold day in January of1937,my grandmother Catherine Barlow died of pneumonia, leaving behind three young daughters-2, 4, and 6 years of age. What happened to the girls happened to many families of the day-they were separated and sent to live with three different families. Only the eldest, Elouise, lived with actual relatives; my mother, Gloria, and the youngest, Juliet, were adopted by family acquaintances. For several years the families made an effort to meet at least once a month and the girls were able to keep in touch, but the family that adopted Juliet eventually moved out of state, which ended any further contact with her.
In later years, Mom gave birth to my two sisters and me. Growing up we would listen to our mother's fond remembrances of the rare and treasured times she spent with her own sisters. We could sense the longing in her voice and the hope that they might, in time, be together again. As a child, I resolved that one day I would reunite my mother with her sisters.
Time passed and my sisters and I married and started families of our own. Life continued quite happily, but in the background hovered the unanswered question, "Where is Juliet?" I began genealogy research on my family and eventually uncovered the name of Juliet's adoptive family. Through the wonders of cyberspace, I was able to get online telephone information for cities in Maryland and Michigan where she might have been living. One sister and I divided the phone calls between us, and voila! Within a couple of days a family tie that have been severed for 50 years was reconnected when we located one of Juliet's sons.
Although Elouise passed away before the three "girls" could be reunited,
my mother was able to visit Juliet a year later and brought back a picture
of this younger sister as a teen. I gathered the few worn photos available
of Mom and Elouise, and created the family portrait the three sisters
never had a chance to take. Using my skill in digital restoration, I
was able to put together a picture of my mother's past-and mine as my
children's as well.
The sense of family that once eluded my mother and her sisters seem born again
with the simple placement of three young, smiling faces on a single page.
---Copyright 2000 Joan Rudder
Originally published in Victoria magazine's Friends of Victoria - July/August 2000