There are so many photos of years gone. Sometimes I spent hours on the floor or bed, surrounded by hundreds of pictures. Usually, this brings me peace and inspiration. Other times it makes me sad, looking down at faces, places and times that no longer exist...
[left] Adeline Frazier [top center] Pecolia Evans William Frazier, Adeline Frazier
[right]Lucinda Davis [middle] Delorise Faison
My grandma [P.Evans] tells me I remind her of her mother [A.Frazier]. This is due to our love of cooking/designing/organizing/crafting etc. Funny, I never met her... she passed before I was born, but I feel her guiding me through life. I often say she is just as busy as an angel.... as she was here on earth.
As a young woman .... she left her two little ones with her mother to find work in NYC, she set out with a plan ... to buy property and pay for her kids education. I love the story grandma tells of Adeline working for a family, their children wore clothes out of the top fashion magazines. In the evenings and days off from work, she would sit at her sewing machine until the wee hours of the morning creating replicas of those designs to send home to her little boy and girl.
Every summer, Adeline and her friends would go Upstate NY and pick Concord Grapes in the open country side. They would bring them back to Brooklyn, and make delicious wine for the winter season. Preserves, jams and honeys were all make and given freely to friends and family. There were "Fish Fry Fridays" and Sundays after church spent at Adeline's. Good times!
Beatrice Hodges[Aunt Bea] Pecolia Evans [Grandma]
Now Aunt Bea... my fathers aunt, happen to be my grandma's best friend from childhood. They all lived in the same little town in South Carolina. So the families were very close knit. By the time grandma became a young women, married and had my mother, she moved to Brooklyn, NY and was off to live in the newly bought apartment building. Guess who soon followed.... Aunt Bea and her husband. Years later mom, dad and I would joined in.
Adeline was gone by now, but as a family they kept tradition alive. By the time I came along... aside from being a daddy's girl, I hung out a lot at Aunt Bea's. We would (silently)sip tea from our special fine china set with extended pinkies, and eat sandwiches with cloth handkerchiefs in our laps. I would fall asleep watching as she worked long hours completing big sewing jobs for clients.
Whenever I look at these photos, I am reminded of the legacy. I realize that I now stand [top center] in my grandmothers place. My grandmother at the age of ninety-three now resembles her grandmother. I am now a cross between my Grandma and Aunt Bea. I have big dreams and aspirations... I have a passion for living and loving. Giving and creating.
So... I will stay reminded by the memory of Adeline and Aunt Bea to stay passionate about any and everything I do. I will continue to live up to and hold up their legacy out of respect and love. Passion is in my blood, and I owe it all to you ladies.
