78. Shot Not Taken

Today was my grandmother's 100th birthday party and I dreamed of the portrait I was going to take all night. This morning I had it all worked out. I would take an amazing and beautiful portrait of her today at the party, post it and write about her tonight on the blog. That didn't happened.

The party was fantastic. It was great to see all my cousins and for the girls to not only see cousins they are familiar with, but they met cousins they didn't know they had. I was able to get some great snap shots of the kids together, but I chose not to take any of my grandmother, Bayto.

As long as I can remember Bayto always took the greatest pride in her appearance. Perfect coiffure, flawless make up, and clothes with excellent tailoring. But today, I was surprised at her appearance. It had been a little over a year since I had seen her and she has changed greatly. She is 100, and having numerous health problems as can be expected with old age, but her appearance was a little shocking for me. I just wasn't ready for it. When it finally came to the opportunity of taking that portrait, I realized I'd rather remember her as she was years ago. Bright smile, warm eyes and animated expressions.

There were plenty of cameras there, and plenty of photographs were taken to mark the day, but mine was not one of them. Instead I searched my photo albums and scanned (yes, scanned) this image of Bayto and Abbey from 2003.