A thousand words

I have had the chance to live all around the world but nothing ever compares to home. Home being, Rocky Mount, NC. Roc City (known to the locals) definitely has become a lot more modern than it was a decade and a half ago but there is still that sense of 'HOME' every time I ride into town.

My maternal grandparents, Louis Underhill & Thelma Holmes - Underhill birthed 12 children before my grandmothers passing in 1966 of cancer. Few years later in 1971, my grandad remarried. Shortly thereafter, grandad and his second wife birthed 3 children. Fourteen (14) maternal aunts & uncles later, I still search for the answer, how did meema and pawpaw handle the inconsistencies of the world and a house full of teenagers and young children.

The story, I have always gotten about the picture below was, it was taken 3 years before the untimely passing of meema. With an undeniable smile on her face and the charming smile of my grandfather, what was it like on that sunny day in North Carolina? What made them take this photo? Who captured the photo? That smile on meema's face is one I have seen many times on my aunts and moms face. Is a smile that hid pain? Or was it a genuine smile that simply illustrated happiness? Did she press his suit? Did she have one of her teenage daughters do her hair because she was tired from taking care of the younger children? Who was watching the children when they were snapping this picture? Where the kids playing close by when this picture was taken?

Questions. Questions! Questions..?

At any rate, this picture is worth a thousand words.

maternal grandparents, T. Holmes-Underhill & Louis D. Underhill