One man's heart.

This is my all time favorite photo! Taken by my grandfather, my mother's father, with probably a simple camera.

Laying here, on the dock, is my mom when she was 4 and her mother. I never met my grandmother but we share the same name and I am sure some other character traits that stream through our blood.

Some Whitaker family history:

Georgia ran away from home when she was 18 along with her sister who was 16. Their father married a woman who carried around with her the wicked-stepmother-syndrome. I guess the best thing to do was run. Georgia really had no where to go so of course she met a man, Furman, aka my grandfather, and married him. So, Furman found a woman who was beautiful and needy and Georgia found a man that longed for beauty in his bachelor lived life. Furman was a sailor and yes, he carried around with him a "sailor" mouth and was drunk often. No one in the Whitaker family had a good relationship with him, even his very own wife. Whether they married for true love or not, we will never know, but God's grace is more than enough through every life story and because of His grace in the Whitaker family, my mother was brought into this world.

Their family was dysfunctional, as all of our own, but I believe this photo captures the life and grace that was woven into my mother's childhood. My mother has received a lot of pain and hurt from her family but she has also received quite a lot of memories that make her smile every time she shares them to me and my brother. She grew up on the water, always wet, eating grapes on the beach, running around with her aunt's ten children, and then again hearing her father yell out at her profanities while adjusting the sail on the sailboat. She laughs at that now.

.......And back to this glorious photo. I believe creativity expresses the grace of God. My grandfather was rough and touch and did not love my mother and her family very well but he had a beautiful side to him. His eye for beauty is evident in this photo along with the many other photos I have seen of his. His actions did not show his hidden love for his family but look at this photo on this page......his love is seen right here......

.......his heart through the eye of the camera.....I just don't think he was brave enough to show it any other way.