Portrush Beach 1953

I am a first generation American. My parents immigrated from Northern Ireland before I was born. My mother discovered her love of reading at a young age. As a teen she would always bring a bag filled with as many books as she could carry with her on family beach days. As soon as they arrived she would grab her own blanket and begin her search for the perfect cavernous area near the shore and create her own private reading nook for the day. 

I once asked my mother why she had always went off on her own, "Why did you stay far away from your family during beach trips"? 

My Granny lost her Father when she was 5. At the age of 7 she, her mother and older siblings were sent to live in a Belfast Workhouse. These places were terrible and existed years before child labor laws. Children living in workhouses worked. Most Americans aren't familiar with the term "the workhouse wail". Unfortunately,  it's a big part of my Granny's story.  

Granny Neill was tough, funny and sharp. 

She was also illiterate. 

  

My mom told me she never read in front of her mom.  

I also remember watching my Granny toss my oldest sister's book into the fire as a child when we went to visit her in Belfast. It was pretty wild.  I remember Granny telling my oldest sister Ellen, who at 18 became the mother of a baby girl and was going through a messy divorce, "you should be takin' care of dat wee baby instead of lookin at dat garbage!". 

Now, this could be a family trait or an Irish thing, but it seems the go-to way of winning a fight with your Maternal bloodline opponent is to question her ability to take care of her children. For the record,  I don't have a single memory of Ellen not holding baby Amanda during the time we spent in Belfast. As a matter of fact,  the way I remember it,  Ellen was swaddling her baby when Granny turned her book into kindling. 

If I remember correctly, it was a romance novel with a soft-back cover featuring a cleavaged damsel in the arms of a shirtless, Fabio-like hunk.  

   Anyway, I decided to share this story and the mixed media journal page it inspired me to make. 

The photo is my mother on one of those family trips. When this was taken she was just coming into adulthood, I believe she was engaged to my Father at this time. Doesn't she look beautiful? I've digitally scanned all her old photos, I used my standard printer to make the copy, then ripped it strategically and aged it with distress ink (vintage photo) and a distress tool on the edges. I used Tim Holtz paper for the background and covered it with distressed oxides, then added  Stampers Anonymous stitching by Tim Holtz as a border. I added the word token and film strip then covered it with vintage matte finish. The dragonfly is from my crafting junk drawer. The quote on vellum paper is by Socrates.