Thursday, January 24, 2008

Mystery Lady


I found the picture in the oval frame in an old family photo album here in the house. A lot of the old family pictures have something written on the back to identify the relatives or whomever. But not this one. And there is no one left in my husband's family to tell us anything. But I was fascinated by the similarities between the picture of her and the picture of me on my wedding day. (You can click on the pictures to enlarge them if you like - the better to compare them with, my dear!))

My sister took all of our photos as her wedding gift to us, and they turned out beautifully. This one was taken on the porch of the Victorian bed and breakfast in Genoa, Nevada where we spent our wedding night. We had a very inexpensive wedding, but it was really nice. I wanted my outfit to be extremely old fashioned so I put a white cotton blouse with cuffs at the sleeves, a ruffled collar and peplum together with my antique lace cotton petticoat/skirt. My shoes were white crocheted espadrille flats with pink satin lacing up the ankle and tiny pink satin roses attached (designed them myself!).The only thing I wanted that I couldn't find at the time were white cotton crocheted gloves. So anyway, years later I find this photo in an album up on a shelf in the closet, and here is this mystery lady in her white dress that is rather similar to my ensemble. Standing next to a porch step near trailing vine tendrils with her hand on a post with the door and window visible behind her. Painted clapboard siding with contrasting dark trim, and even a lace curtain at the window. You can barely see at the bottom left in my picture the wood lattice trimming under the porch floor. I simply had to display the photos together, and I found I already had the perfect vintage frames to house each one. Had I known at the time - I could have put my hair up and added a dark belt and bow and a long pendant! How I wish that I knew who she was, and where the photo was taken.
P.S. The other photo in the top picture is my lovely mother-in-law. I only got to meet her, but never got to know her, sadly, - she had Alzheimer's. I like to think she would have liked me. My father-in-law did.

4 comments:

Tina Dawn said...

I have a guess at your mystery lady. She looks a lot like one of the ladies in my photo from Sonora which has two of the relatives. I will email you. Thanks for sharing the two great photos. I love looking at the old porch, and thanks for the compliment on my photos. Your mother-in-law was so pretty. Love T

Karen Jo said...

I forgot you got married in Genoa. I love that place!!!

Melanie said...

I saw Tina's comment, and I'm curious/nosy if you ever found out who the "Mystery Lady" is. The photos are so beautiful displayed together.

Heidi Ann said...

Hi Melanie - Sadly, I never did find out who she is. There isn't anyone left on my husband's side of the family who would know. :(