When it all becomes clear...

There are moments of stark realizations of the past that can hit you in the time it takes to pick up an old, forgotten picture.

There are moments that you realize that your dear, God-fearing mother lied to your face when she told you that the reason you were catching nary a young lad's eye is because they were intimidated by your beauty and maturity. It was either because she was needing better eye care, or because she had a kind heart and couldn't bear to break yours.

Perhaps both (which is what I would suspect in my mother's case).

Thank you, mother dearest, for sparing me.

It has all become quite clear.

If one was too look at this picture without knowing the subjects, I can see where it would be easy to assume this was your 'average' happy, Mormon polygamist family enjoying the 1989 holiday season...or wonder if the woman in the black and white jacket had to have the star surgically removed from her head. Neither, of course, is the case.

PS. In case you are wondering at the great gap in age amongst our motley crew, there are eight and ten years between my younger sisters and I. They were my very own doll babies when they were born, and have grown up to be my dearest friends. God's timing wasn't what my mom expected at the time (many 'quiet', painful years in there, no doubt), but looking back, God definetely knew what He was doing in spacing our family as He did.

As for having looked 10 years older than my very own mother and often being the assumed mother of my sisters, well, I'm not sure why He didn't intervene, except that it spared me alot of heartbreak.