MY GRANDMOTHER

this is a photo of my grand~mum taken in the early 1900s. 

she was in her teens. these wall plaques were created by 

photo studios of that era when one commissioned a portrait. they were made of tin with the photographic image and designs sealed under an enamel finish.

 the cracks around the plaque are age. the scratches and burn marks on my grand~mum's face were intentionally done by my grandfather.

i never knew my grand~mum. she was gone long before i was born.

  i only know the bits & pieces i could pry from my dad over the years.... 53 to be exact.

 here is all i know about my grandmother~

she died in the mid~nineteen~twenties. she lived in colton, ca and later chavez ravine, los angeles. 

she was a flapper. she liked to drink.. she was a party girl. she never married my dad's father... he was abusive.... she had many boyfriends.... she was "loose"..... she was a bootlegger..... she wasn't a good mother, but she loved my father... she abandoned him..... she would go on binges..... she was arrested for public intoxication.... she was in numerous car wrecks..... one time she was driving with a boyfriend and the car went into a ravine and rolled over...

 they survived.... my father was in the back seat. he was about 6 years old.....

 he sat on the side of the road for hours crying..... my grand mum & her boyfriend were so drunk,

 they laid there for hours.... my dad left the scene of the accident and walked home....

when my dad was about 7 years old he remembered my grand-mum not coming home for a few days & nights..... when she finally did, he heard allot of ruckus and commotion..... my dad froze in fear when he saw her...... she was beaten, bruised, bloodied, and her dress was torn.....  

she walked by him and went to bed.......

  my grand-mum was taken to a "sanatorium" in chinatown..... 

she died of "consumption" a week later.....