Mysterious Past a short story

A little over a month ago Jeannette at Mysteries in Daily Life posted a photo of this fun house and talked about what kind of story might be written around this house. With her permission I have taken on the challenge. While I had originally thought to write something along the lines of a Grimes Fairy Tail, while staring at the photo a story began to form that was unlike anything I have ever written before. I got so wrapped up in the story that I do believe I have enough material to write much more. I hope you enjoy this short story.

Mysterious Past

by Nita Davis

photo copyright Jeannette StG @ http://castlestgermain.blogspot.com

The sun was just setting over the horizon as Elsie turned on the old lamp with the fluted milk glass shade which sat on the small table near her favorite over stuffed chair. It would be another quiet evening. Just her and her faithful companion Maxwell. At fifteen Maxwell was nearly as frail as Elsie. They had long since given up their search for excitement and were now content to sit quietly of an evening reminiscing over tea. Elsie leafing through her old photographs, making notations and writing down stories of adventures long past, while Maxwell snoozed and dreamt of younger days.

Elsie always knew when he was dreaming of some long off chase, as he would begin to pant and his legs to move as if he were running. She would smile and gently caress his greying fur. Sometimes she wondered why she stayed here and continued to pour over these photos writing down a lifetime of stories. Not just her lifetime but stories her parents and grandparents had told her as a child. Sure she was nearing her centennial but her children didn't seem to understand the importance of heritage. They had grown and moved away, had children and grandchildren of their own and all but forgotten her.

The house wasn't big and her son made sure it was kept up, but even a small home can be lonely without the laughter and chatter of youth. Why didn't she just sell the house and move into a retirement home? At least in a retirement home she would have others around to share stories and laugh with. But oh, there were so many memories. It was more than a house it was a home, her home, and had been for nearly 73 years now. She had raised her family within these walls. She would never forget the day her dear Samuel  showed her the scroll work he had cut for the eaves of their newly purchased home. He had promised her a fairy tail and what better way to start than with a fairy tail cottage for a home.

They had planted the first tree in the front yard when their first child was born. Samuel had wanted it to shade the porch from the hot afternoon sun, as Elsie liked to sit on the porch and rock little Thomas. Later two more trees were planted in the back yard, one for each of the children that followed Thomas into this happy family. It wasn't long before they noticed the shadows cast from that first tree turned the white trim to a delicate teal. Elsie loved the soft inviting feel it gave their home, they even considered painting all the trim teal but decided it wouldn't be the same. The water pump out front had long sense stopped working and the gate holding Elsie's much loved Welcome sign hung at an awkward angle but the home hadn't lost it's inviting appeal. So why didn't the kids ever come to visit?

Elsie reflected on how drastically life had changed since she was young. She could remember sitting on her Great Grandmother's lap on the front porch of their huge family home in Oklahoma. She would spend hours just listing to the stories of how her great great grandparents had boarded a ship during the second big year of the Irish Potato Famine in 1848 with no more than the clothes on their backs to start a new life in America. Stories of the hardships in their home country were followed by stories of the hardships faced on their arrival in New York. She wondered if Móraí (MO ree) ever thought of her life as a fairy tail, for that is surely what it had sounded like to Elsie. Samuel had been Elsie's knight in her fairy tail and now she dreamed of having the final chapter Móraí had lived. She really must write those stories down. The old coo coo clock on the mental chimed ten times. Maxwell stretched his long body and raised his head. It was already an hour past their normal bedtime. 'Awe, where had the evening gone?' thought Elsie as she put down her pen. She would have to wait till tomorrow to start writing the stories Móraí had told her. 

It was already mid morning and Elsie still hadn't had a chance to return to her task of recording the family history. The morning had gone by quickly with chores. Maxwell had been more energetic than usual and had wanted to walk just a bit further than normal on their morning walk. Now he was curled up with his favorite blanket taking his mid-morning nap. Settling in to her comfortable chair with a tall cool glass of ice tea, she opens her book to where she left off last night. Ah, that's right she had just started to write about Móraí's mother and father. She closes her eyes for a moment and focuses on the memory of Móraí's voice as she tells the story. Opening her eyes she picks up her pencil and begins to write.

'After two years of struggling to survive in the squalid conditions of New York and the death of their two sons one due to the Cholera epidemic of 1849 and the other due to malnutrition my great great grandfather William O'Flynn goes to work for the Pennsylvania Railroad helping to build the tracks. After two years of saving they finally have enough money to move out of New York with their infant daughter and settle in Philadelphia in 1852. A year later my great grandmother Christine O'Flynn is born. Life was better in Philadelphia but still difficult. Daideó (Daddo) as he was called by his children was gone most of the time working on the railroad. Then on July 17, 1856 tragedy struck and Daideó was killed while on his way home from Gwynedd  his train collided with a train carrying a large group of children on a special outing. Móraí called it the Great Train Wreck of 1856.'

She begins to write about Móraí's sister when she hears Maxwell whimper. "Poor Maxwell how long have you been awake and wanting to go out?" Going into the kitchen she lets Maxwell out the back door. Maxwell can hear Elsie as she says 'I can't believe it is already past noon. I really must get to the market so I can fix lunch.' By now he knows the routine and heads to his favorite patch of shade with a semi fresh bone to gnaw upon. He will wait there while Elsie makes her trip to the store. Elsie pulls the pitcher of lemonade from the refrigerator and heads to the front door. With a quick stop at the hall table she puts on her hat, picks up her purse and the note she has all ready for just such occasions. In a moment she is walking through the front gate after having deposited the lemonade on the porch table and locking the front door and securing the note.

Just days before when Lisa had turned eighteen her father had given her a polished oak box. As he handed her the box he told her 'This belonged to your mother. I could never bring myself to look inside, She said it belonged to her mother so I thought you may want whatever it holds.' In a daze Lisa stared at the box. Her mother had died when she was very young, so young in fact that she could not even remember her. Her grandparents were just as much a mystery as they had died in an automobile accident just after her parents had married. Her father had told her what little he knew of them but it really wasn't much. Their last name was Garcia and her Grandfather was a migrant worker. He thought her Grandmother had siblings but he had no idea who they were or what their last name was.

Taking the box to her room Lisa sat on her bed and slowly opened the box. There really wasn't much in the box; a small Saint Christopher pendant on a very delicate gold chain, 2 thin gold bands, A few old newspaper clippings, some old photographs and a stack of letters held together by string. One newspaper clipping was an obituary for a Mr. Murray born 2-21-1871 died 7-10-1963. Who was he? He must be related, why else would my grandmother keep this, Lisa thought to herself. She scanned the names of the survivors, Garcia wasn't among them. The other newspaper clipping was an article about a strawberry festival held in Garden Grove California, dated May 30, 1962. Next Lisa picked up the three photographs. There was one with a cute little house with fancy white scroll work all along the eaves and a white picket fence. She looked on the back but there was no writing. The next photo was of two girls and a boy on a carousel. Turning the photo over she was excited to see it had writing on the back.  It wasn't much just 1950 and the names Tommy, Mary and Margret. The last photo was of a nice looking couple probably in their late 20's early 30's and also dated 1950.

Rushing from the room Lisa showed her dad. "Look, these photos must be my Grandmothers parents and siblings. There is a newspaper obituary also and a stack of letters. I bet I will be able to figure out what her last name was!" Sure enough when she turned the letters over she saw the name on the return address, it was Elsie Richards. Looking at the obituary she noticed that Elsie Richards was listed as Mr. Murray's daughter. Reading down further it said that Mr. Murray was also survived by 20 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren and 2 great great grandchildren. "Elsie Richards must be related to my grandmother in some way. I can't believe I have so many relatives. Dad, how am I ever going to find them now?" Glancing down at the envelope her father replied, " well dear I would start with that address, maybe one of her children or grandchildren live there now." "Of course! I should have thought of that. I don't have to work Thursday so I will leave around 10 o'clock, it isn't too far to Capistrano just a little over two hours." Lisa let out in a gush of excitement. "Alright just be careful" her father had said as she quickly kissed his cheek and ran off to her room to read the letters. "Thank you Dad for the best present ever" he heard her call as she closed her door.

On Thursday Lisa's excitement was bubbling over as she pulled up in front of the house. It looked just like the photo, well maybe not exactly. The trees were a bit taller and even though it is March there are holiday lights lit up on the porch. Oh and the gate is painted teal, how odd. But it matches the teal shadow cast on the trim by the shade of the tree. She still can't believe this was the home where her grandmother grew up. She had spent the last few days reading and rereading the letters from Elsie to her daughter Margret. It was still hard for her to believe she knew her grandmother's name finally after all these years. As she neared the porch she prayed that one of her relatives still lived here and that they were home. But the windows were dark, although the screen door looked as if someone had recently left and forgot to close the door. But it really didn't look like anyone was home. Then she noticed there was a note on the front door. She read the rather shaky but still elegant script of the note

Lisa's heart skipped a beat as she realized her Great Grandmother was still alive and living in this very house, even more exciting she would be home any minute. On shaky legs Lisa turned to her right and sure enough on a small table covered with a crisp white lace table cloth was a pitcher of ice cold lemonade right next to a cane back rocker it's soft white cushion covered  cheerfully with tiny embroidered red strawberries. Pouring herself a glass she eased herself into the rocker and took a deep breath. Soon she would be talking to her Great Grandmother Elsie learning all she could about her mother's family.

Author note: Please let me know what you think. Should I continue the story?

Linking up with these fun blog hops:
 

Who We Are

Val just finished creating this short video to tell people a little about our company.

 

Preserving Vacation Memories

I am a photo junky, that is right I can never seem to get enough of taking photos. This does at times present a dilemma. Especially when it comes to deciding which vacation photos will get printed and which will only be preserved digitally. Sorting through all the photos can take a bit of time, but it is a great opportunity to relive fun family adventures.

Last month we took two fun mini vacations. During our one day trip to the zoo I took over 300 photos and my daughter took another 200. I posted just a few of the photos in my Test Run post.  Using eighteen of our favorite photos from the trip I put together this memory photo to hang on the family memory wall.

Each of the kids will pick out up to twenty five of their favorite photos so that we can do memory photos for them to put in their scrapbooks.

How To Choose A Memory Collage Design Artist

I recently had the privilege to view a new local collage artists' work. While it was beautifully styled, I noticed a number of flaws in the workmanship that reduced the overall quality of the artwork. Yet I realized it would be easy to mistake the expensively displayed samples for high quality art pieces if one did not know what to look for in a professional digitally designed photo collage, or did not take the time to look closely at the photo manipulation in the designs. Because I feel so strongly that everyone's memories deserve the highest care I would like to give a few tips on what to look for when choosing a Memory Collage Artist.

To start off here are two almost identical memory photos, one is professional quality while the other is of amateur quality. Personally I don't care for the faded image backgrounds but for this example I decided to use the same basic style that inspired this post. You may or may not see the differences even after looking closely, don't worry I will point them out in just a bit.

All images in this post will enlarge when clicked on.
If you click on the enlarged view it will zoom in larger than print size causing some distortion.

Sample #1

Sample #2

When choosing a memory collage artists it is important to find out how your photo will be printed once they have completed the design. Some artists print in house on an inkjet printer, while others use local or online quick labs. To achieve the highest quality you want your memory photo to be printed at a professional photography lab that chemically processes the photographs using archival quality products.  This will ensure your memory photo has the longest possible life span and is the highest  possible resolution print.
You do not want it printed on an inkjet or at a quick lab because:
1) Quick lab prints are printed at a much lower resolution and will not be as sharp as those done by a professional photo lab.
2) Both quick lab and inkjet prints fade faster than professionally processed photographs. Thus the life span is much shorter than a professional photograph. Ink jet prints can begin to fade in as few as five years. Some quick lab prints are not much better, starting to fade in as little as ten years.
I am glad to say the artist I observed does use a professional lab. I'm even pretty sure it is the same lab we use.

Now on to the workmanship. Don't let expensive canvas print samples or fancy framed samples trick you into thinking the artist is experienced or that they are superior quality.

Look very closely at samples of the artists' work.

1. If you will be having some or all of the subjects fully extracted from the original photograph as in the above samples, look closely at how the subject has been extracted.

zoom of sample #1

 If the subject looks like the one above or has a dark smooth edge all the way around, it is a sure sign they have not learned the finer aspects of their craft.

zoom sample #2

In this second example not only has the subject been extracted smoothly and completely but the edges have been blended and given a natural looking shadow along the left side only.

2. Look closely at the different elements of the artwork on the samples, such as frames, fancy designs and any scrapbook style add-on. As for frames there are two things to look for, one is that photos should not extend past the edge of the frame even slightly. The second is that frames should not look like they have been painted or drawn on the flat photograph but should have some dimension to them.

With regard to fancy designs and scrapbook style add-on's it is harder to say what is good and what isn't because this is very subjective. While I prefer the look that is achieved by adding a bit of dimension to at least some of these elements you may not.  However, I do want to point this out because if it is not present in any of the samples you are shown then it is most likely not something the artist is able to achieve. These next two samples will show a little of what I am talking about.

In this section from sample #1 the design elements have just been layered over the photographs creating a flat image such as you would get by making a photocopy of a scrapbook page. Although you just might get a bit more dimension with a photocopy.

In this section from sample #2 you can see that each element pops as if standing out from the background image. So far I have not ran across anyone that prefers the flat look of the above sample over this more polished look, but that doesn't mean one way is right and the other wrong. However, if the artist you choose does not know how to make the style pop you may want to consider finding a different one.

The next examples I would like to show you deal with collages in which multiple photographs are blended together to make your memory photo. The aforementioned artist had only two samples of what I would consider blended collages and in both samples I noticed three of the four most common errors made by beginning collage artists.

In this example I have used the four most common errors made by beginners.
1st is cutting the subject out in an oval with a slightly feathered edge (top left) and placing it on the collage. While this is acceptable when it is part of the design asked for it is not a blended photo collage. 2nd is a sharp extraction of part of the subject. (top right) 3rd is erasing the outer edges with a feathered eraser but leaving an obvious transition between the top image and the background image. (bottom left and right) 4th is poor placement of images limiting ability to blend smoothly. (bottom right)

When the same five photographs are blended together properly the transitions are smoother and it is harder to tell where one photograph begins or ends. 

3. Make sure the artist will include ALL the photos you wish to be in the artwork not just the ones they want to use. Some artists will limit the number of photos because they personally think more than their limit doesn't look good. This is a personal opinion that you as the client should have the right to decide. The artist should let you know however if the quality or number of photographs you are submitting will reduce the overall quality of the finished artwork. They should also let you know how you can get the best quality using your choice of photographs, such as a larger print size or applying special photographic or image effects. Then they should let you decide on whether to included the photos or not. Take for example the center photo in all of the samples to this point. The photo is somewhat blurry, and while a sharper photo would look more like a professional portrait shot and add to the quality of the overall photo the little girls mother still wants that photo as the background. I did add some image effects to the photograph that slightly improved the blur, but only so much can be done to improve a blurry photo.

4. Make sure they will allow you to pick all the elements of your artwork if you should wish too, not just the general theme and color scheme, or in what room you plan to display the artwork. You may be thinking "I'm not an artist, shouldn't I let the artist decide?" I am not saying you should or have to tell them exactly how to do their job. But you should be allowed to say I would like this photo as the background and these ones put in frames or blended or the little girl taken completely out of this photo, or if you want swirls or other added elements. The artist I observed is like many I have seen on line that give the client only minimal say in the overall design of the finished artwork.

These are YOUR MEMORIES and so should reflect YOUR STYLE not the artists' style, unless of course you happen to love the artists' style. To accomplish this the artist should be willing to consult with you about the overall design of your memory photo.  And to ensure your satisfaction the artist should provide you with a proof (either print or digital) and be willing to make at least one change if not more to that proof without additional charges before printing your artwork.


Most memory collage artists' offer only one or maybe two styles of designs and if you know what different styles are available and you like the style they offer then that is great. However, it is good to know what other styles are possible so you can decide which meets your needs best.

To make the styles easier to distinguish between we have created samples using the six basic styles we offer at Artistix Network LLC. A memory photo can be all of one style or can incorporate a number of different styles.

There is one more style I would like to share because although I consider it a blended collage it looks quite different from the traditional blended collages. In this type of blended composite photographic collage some or all of the photographs are merged together as if a double exposure has occurred.

There are many digital collage artists both locally and on line that do beautiful professional high quality work. However, there are many more who produce only amateur quality work and try to pass it off as high quality.  It is my hope that this information will help families and individuals seeking to create a memory photo get a long lasting high quality photo.

I want to thank you for sticking with me through this long post. I considered making it a two part post but breaking the information up just didn't feel right. If you have any questions or need help with a memory photo I am here to help.

If you have found this information helpful and informative please share this with others.

Fleeting Moments

Toddlers are so great, you never know what fun entertaining things they will do next. Thanks to cell phones with camera's it is now pretty easy not to miss those precious moments that pass so quickly. A few weeks ago a friend stopped by with her two small children. I am so glad I had my cell phone with me or I would have missed this shot going to get my camera.

These days cell phones are able to capture fairly good shots, and most are high enough resolution to at least be printed at a quick lab. At Artistix Network we have even done a few memory art prints made entirely of cell phone photos. So go ahead and capture those fleeting moments with your cell phone, it is better than letting them fade into an obscure past.

July 4th Celebrations

One of my favorite celebrations of year is the 4th of July. There are so many fun things going on. With the pick-nicks, parades, family get-to-gathers and the fireworks it is a very special time.

I love seeing the look on the kids faces as they watch the parades and the fireworks. Of course try to keep my camera at the ready so that I can capturing their excitement and joy.

By the end of the day the film is all used or now that I have gone digital my memory cards are all full.

It use to make me kind of sad when all the photos of such a joyful time wound up in the box of old photos or hidden away and forgotten in one of the many photo albums.

Another thing that would frustrate me is when I would go to put the photos in one of the kids scrapbooks and there was only enough room for a few photos on the page.

There was always enough photos that I probably could have filled up a twenty page scrapbook for every holiday.

Take for example these few photos on the left of some fireworks and my Granddaughter at her first 4th of July parade.

And to think photos like these probably would have wound up in the box with all the photos that wouldn't fit in her photo album.








Now it is so much easier, I can go through the photos and pick out up to twenty five of my favorite photos and make a single 8x10 memory photo to frame and display around the house or put in their scrapbook.

Here are two different memory photos using the same eight photographs.

 Personally I like this next one best. I love the combination of the composite background with the three firework photographs blended together to create one background and the scrapbook style framing around the remaining five photographs, which gives it almost a three dimensional look.

Not only am I now able to show off more of the fun photos but I am able to do so with professional quality photographs instead of low resolution quick lab prints. At Artistix Network L.L.C., unless otherwise requested we have the lab print all our high resolution memory photos on metallic paper. The metallic photo paper adds an amazing affect to the photo. Seeing them on the computer is one thing but seeing them in person always excites me even when the photo is for a client because when the light hits the metallic paper all the colors just pop adding to the three dimensional look of the photograph.

This year it looks like we will have all our children and most of our grand children home for the 4th of July. If the weather co-operates we plan on having a BBQ and of course taking lots of pictures. How do you like to celebrate the fourth of July, or your national independence day if you are not in the USA?