days gone by

I was looking for something on my computer and came across a family album I made for my mother a long time ago.  I had scanned all the really old and precious family pictures into the computer and designed a book for her.  These are images of my grandparents and great grandparents and I love them, I really really love them.  This is history, this is my family, the family that is long gone and lives on in us.  The image I posted below is a wedding, I don't know whose wedding it is, I know my grandma and her parents are in this picture.  If you look closely, there is a little girl in the front and she is holding a wilted flower and her white tights are dirty.  This is what makes this picture so special for me.  Everybody is really stiff, but you know that this little girl played just before the picture was taken and might have gotten in trouble because now her clothes are dirty.  She creates a connection to other kids I have seen in many weddings I have taken over the years.  Maybe I have taken a similar picture and someone many years from now will look at it and try to create their own story from the family portrait.