My Mom's Shadow

I have an account on Facebook and chose for my profile picture the one here from when I was the Bud Princess for Pier School in Coloma, Michigan in 1951. Berrien County has a big Blossom Festival every spring in celebration of the "heart of the fruit belt" theme for that area. Each elementary school chooses a Bud Prince and Princess and each High School chooses a Blossom Queen and one queen is chosen to preside over the festivities and parade.

I am sure my mom was so excited and honored that her little girl, Carol Jean, was chosen to represent Pier School as the princess. Darrell Fikes was the prince. We rode in the Kiddie Parade and the big Blossom Parade.

This picture shows me in front of our home near Lake Michigan. I thought it was a cute picture to have for my profile picture on Facebook. One thing about the picture that was "photography" incorrect is the shadow of the person taking the picture being over the subject, me. It kind of bothered me and the other day I thought that I would take the shadow out with my picture editing software program. As I started to do it, a thought came over me, "that is my mommy so proudly taking that picture of her little girl." My mom is the most special of all mothers on the earth so after I thought a moment I decided that I could not take that shadow out. She is 86 years old now and I know that she was so proud of me back then that to take her shadow out after all these years would make me sad. So I left it in to be a memorial of the love that a mom has for her child. The love she has for me and I have for her.