Its Shadow

I remember being introduced to these tiny ladies at my grandmother'e funeral. Here are Jennie and Effie, somebody said. But I didn't really tumble to who they were; there were so many relatives there!

Later my mother showed me a photocopy of this picture, 
which I have placed on this blog earlier. Linked.

Then I got a copy of this from Effie's pet grandson, Randy Holladay.

The woman standing is my maternal grandmother, Susan Elizabeth Redd Butler.
Descendants, please look carefully at her face;
I think I see some great-great-grandchildren here.
Tonight I tuned that file up a little so one can see the faces better, at least on my laptop.
These two younger girls grew old to be the tiny ladies in the photo above.

If I remember correctly, they were Susie's last remaining full siblings.

Below is a photograph of Effie's birthplace.  Under it
I have placed part of Effie's reminiscences of life here.

My father, Lemuel Hardison Redd, helped settle the place where I was born, 13 July 1890. Bluff, Utah, was a settlement many miles from civilization in a canyon along the San Juan River, with its miles of high walls and roads that were almost impassable. Our family of nine children, ranging from nineteen to the baby, Effie, lived in a small two room log cabin with dirt floor and mud roof. The walls and ceiling were lined with factory. My mother, Sariah Louisa Chamberlain, made it a real home. As a baby I had dark black hair, and the Indian neighbor told mother, “Maybe so, your baby a papoose.” My parents moved to Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico in 1892, where I grew up enjoying my childhood in a little town with tree-shaded streets, playing along the Pierdas Verdes River.

Here is a link to Effie's complete life story,
the source of the quote above..

For anyone who got this far, tonight's poem is a haiku:

cut down

the tree that leaned against the house

leaves its shadow

Alan Pizzarelli

Frozen Socks, House of Haiku, 2015, page 102