Photos of Memaw

My Memaw did not like to have her picture taken.  In fact, she was notorious for her ability to dash out of the shot at the last minute or for covering her face, so that all that was recognizable was her famous flaming-red hair.  It actually became a game in my family to try to catch her on film.  People would sneak up on her.  They would try to catch her from multiple angles at the same time.  They would go all private investigator, hiding and taking pictures while she was distracted.  But somehow she still knew she was being filmed, and the pictures would end up blurry and unrecognizable or with a hand over her face (she could move that hand like greased lightning). 

Later in her life, when she wasn’t as spry, she gave up trying to avoid the pictures and just started making you regret trying to take it.  We have hundreds of photos with my grandmother sticking out her tongue or flicking off the camera.  But the best photos are the ones taken right after she did something like that, because they capture her beautiful smile, as she laughed at herself.  Sometimes, she was laughing so hard that she was crying, and she was just as beautiful in those as well.