Granny Gee’s Little Boy… Photos Of When I Once Had A Young Son

Granny Gee’s Son, Tommy… when she had a little boy

 

Granny Gee’s Little Boy… Photos Of When I Once Had A Young Son

 

By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee

 

Skip reached up high on the bookcase to hand me the picture above that you see… of Tommy, myself. I asked him to please hand it to me, it was too high to reach.

 

For days, I have walked into Skip’s study, looked up at this photo. Tommy was eleven years old in this photo… it was taken just before … just before he … disappeared from my life for three years. I can’t write about that now. I just can’t…

 

We had a good relationship. God… how I loved my son. I was so proud of him. I was proud to be his mother… my son was proud of his mama.

 

His friends would always ‘hit on his mama’. I would always say to his friends… “I’m flattered, if you were older I’d take you up on it, but… not until then.” They would grin, and go on being their age, comfortable around me. Tommy loved the idea that his friends would get a crush on his mama.

 

The photo is proof that once I was a mother… a mama. Sometimes, I have to look at photos to show myself that I once was. I have nothing else to prove that I was ever anyone but… me, myself. I have grandchildren … but, I have to look at photos to believe they exist. They look like my son… so, I know they are real.

 

Photos … photos that somehow made it through a horrible house fire. They were photos in stacks of albums, books and in a huge, old suitcase. Alot were wet from the firemen’s hoses… the ones in the ‘middle’ were without damage.

 

It’s a miracle that I have any photos left … now, I thank God with my heart. I wouldn’t have had anything left but, a broken heart when Tommy died, if all the photos had perished with that fire.

 

This photo, through the whole time he was, missing … is very significant to me. I cried many tears, sat looking at this one photo, wondering where my son was. This one photo has seen so many tears.

 

It reminds me of when I would take my youngest brother and Tommy skating, play pool, go swimming, out to eat. I took pride in getting Tommy’s hair cut just right, dressing him nicely. I had the most handsome son in the whole world.

 

Tommy thought he had the most beautiful mother in the world, he was very protective of me even at such a young age. I was like a mother lion over her cub, when it came to my son. There were a few times I ‘went to battle for him’……

 

Photos are memories in pictures … they are thoughts you can ‘see’, you can hold that thought, that memory in your hand and look at it as long as you want to remember. I have to hold this photo just minutes at a time … I can’t look into it long for the pain associated with it. The pain of … now.

 

When you look at it, you’ll see a young, pretty mother with her young, handsome son … what you won’t see is the ‘hell’ they both had come through… nor the hell that was ahead of them. What you will see is love, both proud to be mother, proud to be son… of the other. I see the beautiful love…

 

This is proof that I, Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee … had a little boy once… his name was Tommy. He’s gone now. He was a big boy when he died, at the young age of forty. Tommy collapsed on the sand at the ocean… he had two blockages in his heart.

Below, Granny Gee/aka Gloria Faye Brown Bates… her son, Tommy… when she used to be mother of a very handsome young man.

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