Girlfriends

Camilla posted some vintage family photos today and it got me thinking of one that I picked up during a visit to Michigan to see my husband's family. Mr. Sabbe's Aunt Irene was one of those older ladies who was ready to go. Her husband died years earlier and during our 2 hour visit, she tried relentlessly to make me take home anything from porcelain statues to wood end tables, determined she would die at any moment. The one thing I did end up with was a stack of vintage photos. The one above is one of my favorites. Irene is the one in the top left, other than that I do not know any of the other ladies. But I love this photo, there is such a story to be told.

These women worked together on a boat, I believe it was during WWII. I remember looking at this photo, I was 24 years old, and thinking Irene was very close to my age. I don't know what it was, but it was so surreal for me to look at this image, which I could totally imagine being me and my girlfriends, and understand that in this photo was a young woman who was now an old lady, ready to die. Do old photos ever get you thinking about the brevity of youth?