My mother Lan is featured here as a teenager. I had never seen this photo of her which was shared with me from one of her cousins in Trinidad where she was born. I love this image which shows her beauty and strength of character. Her father was born in China but came to the British-governed island with his parents when he was 9 years old. Her mother was a mixture of the few remaining indigenous people of the Caribbean, Tainos, whose survivors claimed Spanish ancestry. From an outsider's perspective, Mother looked like any Polynesian, though brought up in our emerging Creole culture.
This photo could not predict that in her senior years she would have a stroke; that she would only live for 73 years; that she would be a legal secretary; that she would be married twice; that she would be a struggling business woman; that she would eventually become the mother of 5 boys; that she would be a grandmother of 5. If only early photos could give us an inkling of our future! Yet, I believe they can tell us something about ourselves.
One health issue in her later adult life changed her perspective. I remember her words: "de body doh lie ... de body have a mind of its own!" The body does not lie and seems to have its own mind. Mother had a way of using our local Creole parlance to articulate a wisdom of the ancients. In standard English she said to me years later:
"That stroke did not just change my body; it changed my perceptions of myself. Every time you have a change in your life, that is an experience that lets God come through."
May our old photos inspire us to remember the wisdom of our loved ones. This one surely did for me. I am grateful.
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