Eudora Anne

This is a photograph of my beloved grandmother, "Mamaw Bates," that I shot just a few days before her death in her little apartment in the assisted living center where she lived. She used to live in a rather large home that my Grandfather built for her and before that in the perfect child's wonderland of a Craftsman style home built into the side of a hill.
Eudora passed away from natural causes, old age, and tired-of-living syndrome three years ago.
She was one of the most giving, loving, and sweet women ever to walk the Earth. From my birth on, she was a constant source of unconditional love and acceptance. A giver of gifts. A sender of flowers and cards. I would wake up sometimes disappointed because I always dreamed to be at her house. I have such cherished memories of her and her house. The polyester dresses she always wore in the seventies along with her weekly trips to the beauty shop to get her hair and nails done which lasted until she was no longer able to get there and they would come to her. She always had a maid who for most of my life came every day. Back in the day, she smoked like a chimney and had these fabulous, huge ceramic ashtrays in the den. She always drove a new Lincoln Towncar until her later years when she switched to a very nice top of the line Mazda. Her house always had the perfect places to hide and play...under the dining room table with a blanket thrown over it for cover. The hall closet replete with it's black tin canaster covered in colorful flowers and full of the heavenly waxy smell of crayons. Her vanity was a paradise of perfumes, creams and lipsticks. The hand carved wooden panther in the den was always scary, even in the day time. The formal living room was always cold, even in the summertime. The front porch was great for singing to the passing cars or just rocking in the chairs under the ceiling fans. The tiny back sitting den was a haven for eating fat dill pickles, drinking Donald Duck orange juice and watching Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers, the Electric Company and Cannon, Hawaii Five O and Maude. I miss these times and this woman every day of my life. She was more than a person. She was a feeling. An icon from an era well lived but long gone by. I loved her and she loved me and all was right with the world when we were together. Hell, all the right with the world just when you got something from her in the mail. Rest in peace, Mamaw. You are still my shining light and my standard. I measure everything I do by the bar you set. Thanks for everything.