Sarah

Dedicated to my Grandmother, Sarah (The Piano Player)

Came from Holland just under 2 years of age. Great-grandparents and two siblings, all three children under the age of five at the time of their immigration to the USA. Ship: The Veendam.

Photo Restoration/Video: Jane Marla Ver Dow (2010)

Video Music: John Jarvis, Some Kind of Sunrise

Names of "Home Towns" In Holland (Providence) I saw printed, though letters switched or left off or added on through speech translation handscripted now in print or handwriting versions of the storycarriers. Here I will write them as Zeelandic Flander; Zuidzande; but most common I saw Cadzand. Speech we often heard Zuid-er-zee. I assume that meant land Zuidzande next to or on the zee (Noordzee/North Sea). Funny how sound and letters get lost over time.

Then, the waves and Sea...Now, still fighting the elements to work the land and to preserve home...that remains like Homeland, northwest Netherlands. The draw towards living near water remained in the hearts and Souls of next generations and there they settled along The Great Lake; Ontario. Farmland, rich and higher elevation this new place called, home.


I wrote this in loving memory to "the Grandparents I never met" and to include them on the day my parents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Grandma Sarah passed at age 40 (Dad, 14) and my Mom's Father, William had passed (1945) prior to their wedding day, 1946.

God, watch over me and mine I pray
Your Ocean to cross so vast.
Dream You planted in my heart just as deep
Your Promise be true, what I sow may I reap.
Set my sail to horizon -America, there may
Mother Liberty open her arms.
Captain my ship as she sails on the Sea
Me a lad or babe, Mother praying over me.
Farmland rich for Your Hands did make.
My gifts all I bring, from Thee.
My hands able to labor and music I play
Send Your Love and Guide my way. Amen.



Happy Heart Day to my Lucier-VerDow Family, 2010

Photo Restoration: Jane Marla VerDow

I love doing photo restoration of old photos. At first I thought it was my imagination, but as I was doing the close pixel work on photos of people I knew, I sensed them there with me. Everything about them. How their skin felt to me, or smells of their day from work or food; simply put, I could sense them on a touch level.

What really intrigued me...when retouching the photos of Grandma Sarah, the grandmother I never knew or met or had the gift to touch, this feeling-touch sensation would still travel through my mouse click into my hand...then to my heart.

Same I sense with old books or old papers. Guess that's the real story behind my rare and old book searches and the interest ephemera collecting. I connect this way.



For more of the same: old photos and restoration in process, or family immigration stories

http://lakeontarioshoreline.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=16


Janie

Roots of Life

Springtime Love

Unloading apples

Moments of fun in a day's work

Now a Dad

In Charge of Wolf and Guarding the Peaches

Then along comes...

Janie

Born to be the storyteller.

Photos:

Springtime Love. Mom and Dad;1949

Dad driving tractor, younger sister Viola riding on trailer with family dog. Mom took picture. Had just returned from their Honeymoon "around Lake Ontario via Niagara Falls, Canada, St. Lawrence" (August 1946); Fall 1946

Dad and sister, Nancy in the woods on farm;1955

Nancy and Wolf guarding peaches at Grandpa's;1953

Janie, the storyteller;1959

Growing a Family

Cherry Pickin'

Friends from Rochester visit the farm, photo shoot attempted

Big Sister, Little Brother

Special moment with Mother


Grandpa (Myron) and Grandma (Sarah), the early days

family posing next to Great-grandma's snowball bush



photos:

#1 Cherry pickin'. 1933. Dad with sisters. Adult female, lifetime neighbor/family (cousin) and her husband.

#2 Approx. 1929; third and fourth,1923; fifth, approx. 1923
top; Dad center fourth from left with sisters, Isabelle clearing her eyes, Mabel crouched down holding Beulah, and right side Viola, little one consoled by adult. Early spray tank background.
#3 Dad sitting on the lap of big sister, Mabel
#4 Dad on Mother's lap, Mabel looking on
#5 Grandpa and Grandma right, Grandpa's sister, Katie left.

Childhood; 1905

photo 1905; Grandpa and sister, Carrie

Nearing Twenty

Day-to-Day along Lake Ontario; Upstate

Sun Rise

Approaching Noon

Sunday Afternoon Drive
Lake Ontario

One Room Schoolhouse


Sunday Afternoon at the Pier

Top three photos: 1918-1920
Schoolroom/class: 1912-1918
Crop Duster, aircraft view: 1947
Pier: approx. 1920; Grandma, Sarah middle