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| Susee Mable age 6 (Flaiz Memorial Adventist School circa 1947) © Anandaraju Family Archives |
Ever since I was a kid, I have longed for a photograph of my beloved mother as a little girl. To have just one glimpse of her in childhood would have made my life. Of course, we had wonderful and iconic photographs of my mother during her teens and twenties but never one from her girlhood. Amid my desperate pleas, Mum would often lovingly console me:
"Not everyone had cameras back then, Amma. That's just how those days were."
Flash forward to October 2016: an inconspicuous visit by a family member living in the U.S. to an old friend paved the way for my lifelong dream to come true. My relative stumbled upon an old black and white school photo circa 1947 at the home of his friend. As school photos go, it was standard fare with rows of neatly groomed teachers and students in classic school day poses. As my uncle searched for familiar faces, the sweet-faced little girl at the bottom of the photograph made him stop in his tracks. My uncle excitedly exclaimed:
"That's Chanty! I remember that little face."
His old friend as it turned out was one of my mother's former teachers from her Adventist alma mater, Flaiz Memorial (grades 1-12) in Narsapur, India during the late 1940s. This retired school teacher had the holy grail that I had spent four decades looking for.
My uncle, kindly made a copy and sent the priceless photograph to my dumbfounded family.
My brother, father and I wept tears of joy, and in one instant: felt such deep and abiding love for (and from) Mum and relived the heartache and immediacy of her loss. It was such a powerful moment, one that we shall never forget.
For me, receiving my mother's childhood photo was both a gift and a dream come true. An heirloom for the ages. It was like a message from my mother across time and space. I had spent decades praying, wishing and searching for her childhood photograph and it somehow found its way back to me.
Not only did I get to see what my mother looked like as a child but it confirmed what my mother has told me all my life:
"I looked just like you did, Amma!"
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| Suha on the left (first two photos), circa late 1970s and Susee on the right, circa late 1940s |
She truly did. The photograph above leaves me speechless. A carbon copy of how I looked in kindergarten. It's as if I existed in a photograph thirty years before my time.
My mother and I were so close. She was my best friend and the love of my life. It's as if heaven sent Mum back to me.
I waited over four decades for my dream to come true. It was worth the wait.
Posted by: Suhasini