There are many jokes about the tension and animosity between a woman and her mother-in-law. I lucked out and had the most wonderful mother-in-law anyone could ask for.
Rose passed away in 2013 just before Christmas. It was difficult for all of us and I miss her all the time. There are so many moments when I want to call and tell her something funny I heard, news about the boys, or just to see how she's doing. She really enjoyed watching and talking about the Detroit Tigers.
Her last few years were spent in a nursing home, but it didn't stop us from visiting or calling her on a regular basis. Even though I know the center has already reassigned her phone number to someone new, I still can't seem to remove her photo and number from my phone's contact list.
A few months before she passed away, we went over to her house (my brother-in-law still lived there) and started to gather what photos we could. I was going to ask Rose to identify everyone in the pictures so I could write their names on the back.
While we were on this treasure hunt, we came across two photos of Rose that were taken when she was a little girl. Our best guess is that she was around age 4 or 5. The pictures were in very bad shape. There were parts missing, lots of creases, spots, and fading. These little gems are approximately 1.4" x 1.8" in size (so relatively small).
My favorite part of the pictures is the look on her face. To say she was not happy getting her photo taken is an understatement. She was flat out ticked off (and I think it is adorable). For the short 17 years that I was in her life, she had that same expression when she got mad.
I spent weeks restoring the photos, and I think I discovered what was irritating her. One of the photos clearly shows an unidentified person holding Rose's hands on her lap. She definitely would not have been happy about that.
Because the original photos were very small, I resized them so they could be printed at a number of different sizes. When she passed, we printed one as an 8x10, framed it, and had it on display by the casket at the funeral home. Everyone agreed that you could tell when she was mad because she made that same face. It prompted a lot of stories; some we knew about, while others were brand new.
Here are the before and after versions:
