Karen and Carol

Ok








This picture captivates me in several respects and for many reasons. First because it predates yours truly and my big brother as well. I would guess my mother is pregnant with him at the time of this portrait making it 1963, the year he was born. So Karen is 3ish and  Carol 6ish. Karen looks so genuinely happy and healthy. Her smile and slight dimples and bright eyes she is so beautiful and perfect. Carol is beautiful too of course and smiling, but I see in her eyes a concentration on determining exactly what the photographer is saying. He's obviously entertaining and great at what he's doing and has her attention, but she's not getting him and smiling to be polite. I wonder what he said because Karen thinks it hilarious.




After enjoying this photo for awhile it struck me how hard it must have been on Carol when Karen died. Sure it was hard on all of us, but what Carol went through with the menegitus and those two being so close. She was already quite isolated because of her deafness and she was on her way to college. She being such a natural empath I'm sure she felt every bit of what Karen had gone through. Makes me ache just to think about it. I do not dwell on the tragedy of Karen's death or Carol's. I do celebrate the way in which they lived. They lived in way of appreciation. They lived on in the worst of situations. They accomplished more, lived more, influenced more, created more and loved more than the circumstances of their short lives would have predestined if known when this portrait was taken.




A thought that came to me long after seeing this photo. They look like angels. Literally. I do not proclaim to know a thing for certain about the afterlife. But I do have faith there is one. What I do know is whatever the afterlife holds for us my sisters are already there. Together. With Dad. And Bootsie too. Sharing the love they shared then and sharing the love I feel now. Sharing the love of my girls today and carrying it forward forever.

!