The photo was tucked into the back pages of an earmarked copy of Leaves of Grass. It was not the sort of thing that Susan had expected to find among her Mother’s belongings but then this weekend had been full of little revelations. As she looked at the photo, she recognized a much younger version of her mother. Margaret wasn’t in the center of the photo, she was standing back, partly obscured, but smiling.
Susan didn’t recognize the couple dancing but realized that they, or the moment must have been important to her mother. She turned the photo over. On the back it read, in her mother’s script, “Peggy and Dave, first place.” She flipped through the book, back to front to see if there was anything else hidden in its pages but found nothing. Trying again from the front, she noticed an inscription:
“For my Maggie, for dreams of revolution and for summers yet to bloom, with love, Dave.”
Susan wondered if it was from the same Dave who took first place with Peggy. She realized she would never know for sure but it meant something to have even a glimpse of her Mother’s life so long ago. She slid the photo back into the book and tucked the book into the bag of things she was going to keep. She pulled the next few books off the shelf, leafing through each one as she continued to sort and pack her Mother’s things.