Of my four great grandmothers, I only have a glimpse at one. There maybe pictures of my other three great grandmothers, but I’ve never seen them. The photo is of Mrs. Alice Green White. She is the mother of my mother’s mother. She lived from the late 19th century into the beginning of the 20th century, so the photo is more than 100 years old. Her husband, my great grandfather, was “mulatto” or mixed with white and black. That explains my Caucasian ancestry.

This photo fascinates me because it is a part of me which I will never physically be able to touch. I can only imagine what she was like, yet there she is staring right at me resembling my mother and even me by some portions. Time is only a landscape with distances and perspectives. We are still together on the same ground whether we believe it or not. With photos from our past we stay connected to everything from before, now, and into the future.