My Mother's Gesture

Portrait of My Mother

In this photo at the farmhouse in Whiteflat, Texas, we are in my grandmother, Stella Tilson’s, kitchen.

I am not, nor are any of the grandchildren in the picture. All the adults are squeezed around

two tables that are pushed together. Everyone is drressed up for Sunday dinner in the same way

they would be if it was a picture in an elegant dining room. Only this is a very small kitchen. Stella

is proud of the dinner she has prepared. My mother, her very dark luxurious hair, and, as evidenced

from other pictures, is wearing dark lipstick. I cannot see her face. however. It is turned away from

the camera. Her posture suggests that she is reaching towards something or someone. Because I

remember this house, I know that she is sitting near the doorway to the next room where there is

a smaller table set up and all of the grandchildren are seated around it. The pose of her reaching is a

nurturing gesture. There is tenderness in the way she holds her arms. This is a portrait of my mother.

This is what she did, solely, and to the best of her ability.