March 1929, Boston Massachusetts, forty-seven-year-old William Patterson received letter from elderly woman named Mrs. Dorothy Greene, letter said “Mr. Patterson, I was neighbor to your mother Margaret for thirty years, your mother passed in 1919, before she died she gave me a box to hold for you, said to give it to you ten years after her death, it’s been ten years, I’m ninety years old now, please come collect your mother’s box.”
William was confused, mother had died 1919, he’d settled her affairs, distributed belongings, nothing had been left in storage, what box could neighbor have held ten years? William visited Mrs. Greene March 15, 1929, elderly woman answered door, invited William in, handed him wooden box, William recognized it immediately, was box from his childhood home, opened it, inside were photographs, dozens of photographs from William’s childhood, ages four to seventeen, family photos William thought had been destroyed in fire 1905.
Fire had destroyed Patterson family home 1905, William was twenty-three, his mother Margaret had been devastated, believed all family photos were lost, William’s father had died 1903, photos were only visual record of family, Margaret had mourned their loss for years, had cried about lost photos regularly, William had consoled her, said “We have memories, photos are just paper,” but knew photos mattered to Margaret.
Mrs. Greene explained: “Your mother came to me 1919, month before she died, she knew she was dying, gave me this box, said ‘I never told William I saved these from the fire, I let him think they burned, I don’t know why I didn’t tell him, maybe I was angry he didn’t care about them like I did, maybe I was petty, I’ve kept them in my bedroom fourteen years, he never asked about them, never looked for them, I’m dying now, give him these ten years after I die, tell him his mother saved what she could, tell him I’m sorry I didn’t give them to him while I was alive.'”
William sat holding box of photographs, mother had saved them from fire 1905, had kept them fourteen years without telling him, had died 1919 without giving them to him, had arranged for neighbor to deliver them ten years posthumously, William looked through photos, saw himself at five years old, saw father who’d died when William was twenty-one, saw family together before losses, before fire, before deaths.
William realized his mother had heard him say “photos are just paper” and had been hurt, had kept photos as punishment or protection, had held onto them fourteen years, had arranged complicated posthumous delivery as final gift and final message, message arrived ten years late but arrived intact, mother reaching from grave to give son back his childhood.
William couldn’t explain to anyone why he was crying over box of old photographs, his wife asked “What’s wrong?”, William said “My mother gave me my childhood back, she died ten years ago but she gave me my childhood back today,” wife didn’t understand, William didn’t explain fully, some things existed between mother and son only.
William kept photographs rest of his life, framed several, hung them in his home, looked at them daily, photos mother had saved from fire and hidden fourteen years and arranged to deliver posthumously, William told his children 1950: “Your grandmother saved these photos from a fire in 1905, she kept them in her room fourteen years without telling me, she gave them to our neighbor with instructions to give them to me ten years after her death,
I received them 1929, ten years after she died, twenty-four years after fire, your grandmother reached twenty-four years forward to give me back my childhood photos, that’s who she was, someone who saved things, who kept things, who gave gifts on delayed schedules, I’ve had these photos twenty-one years now, I look at them every day, your grandmother’s been dead thirty-one years, I still feel her giving them to me, still feel her love in every photograph she saved.”
William died 1971, age eighty-nine, photographs passed to children, passed to grandchildren, still in family, each photo marked on back with notation “Saved from fire 1905 by Margaret Patterson, hidden 1905-1919, given to William Patterson 1929 via Mrs. Greene, cherished 1929-1971,” provenance written by William documenting photos’ journey from fire to hiding to posthumous gift to family heirloom.
