A Scent of Lavender

I have a black-and-white photograph in an ornate gilt frame on my mantelpiece. It was one of a pile of family photographic records I saved when clearing out my parents' house after my mother died. As was the case with most of the pictures, I have no idea who the people in the portrait are, and judging by the probable age of it, there are probably no persons now living who do know.

It's a studio portrait of a little family. The gilt frame suggests that someone valued this and wanted to display it, which makes me unwilling to vandalise the frame in case there's any identifying text inside the back. It's Father (standing), Mother and Small Son (seated). Father stands with a slight smile on his face to the camera, shoulders held back, emanating pride in his stance. He's wearing rimless spectacles and what I imagine is his "best" suit - I'm sure the picture could be dated by someone knowledgeable in fashions. It's a double-breasted suit, buttoned high up on the chest with tiny little lapels, slanting pockets, shirt with a stiff collar (might be celluloid) and a small-knotted tie. Doesn't fit very well; I doubt somehow that it was made to measure. He looks to be in his late twenties or early thirties, though it's difficult to tell. I suspect he's a clerk or a shop-worker.

Mother, in front, is wearing a high-piled off-the-face hairstyle, and a dress in a dark, dull-textured material with a long, flowing, pointed collar, long sleeves with cuffs and a long but not voluminous skirt to her ankles, and boots. She also has a long necklace of beads or pearls, presumably her very best one.She is plump, looks older than Father (so they're probably about the same age, women ageing faster than men in the old days) and is also slightly smiling, shyly I think. She's plump and has a cosy-looking lap.

Little Son looks to be about ten years old or younger. He's very serious. He has a large magazine or unbound book - the scale is too small for me to see what it is, but it's too big for a novel and I can't make out the picture, could be a map - on his lap, with one finger pointing to the illustration. Presumably a scholar. I wonder if it's one of those serial publications, very popular in Victorian and Edwardian England - Cassell's Home Educator, and the like. Maybe he's just won a scholarship to grammar school, and this is their way of celebrating it. He's wearing a very stiff-looking tweed suit, slightly too big for him (probably thriftily bought that way so he could grow into it) with short trousers; collar and tie like Father; his knees are bare, long socks, and high buttoned boots. He resembles both parents, particularly Father: both their ears stick out.

I wonder who these people were? They look gentle, unassuming folk, not rich but not "working-class". Pity that the photograph was taken in a studio, as I would love to see where and how they lived. I get the feeling that Mother and Father are tremendously proud of Little Son, presumably their only child. What happened to them? Children's lives were so vulnerable in the 19th and early 20th century, before modern medicines and vaccines....did Son live to grow up? Or did he arrive at adulthood, just in time to be fed into the First World War? I shall never know.

I am sure that they took this photo because they wanted this time of happiness to be remembered. I pray that it lasted for them. I keep it on my mantelpiece as a memorial.

Bulletin from the Department of False Logic

"Of the 584,791 deaths in the UK in 2004, 0.16% (936) were by voluntary euthanasia and 0.33% (1,930) through the doctor ending a patient's life without consent from the patients, also known as involuntary euthanasia, the survey revealed.

But not one GP or hospital doctor said they had taken part in physician-assisted suicide in the poll which asked them to report on the last death they had attended.

A third of deaths were put down to alleviating symptoms which may have the effect of shortening life, while just under a third were from with-holding treatment because it is deemed in the best interests of the patients. Both practices are legal in the UK.

It is the first time such a comprehensive study into medical practice has been undertaken in the UK and shows euthanasia rates are lower [sic] than in many other countries." (from BBC website)

Anybody besides me see a little discrepancy in the logic here?

Just testing......

Just testing......