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somehow after moving what seemed like a hundred times managed to always care for this portrait of her mother boxes full of photographs and decades old letters Nanny lived two doors down from me my whole life I stayed over most weekends and was her canasta teammate on Wednesdays We made plastic canvas tissue box covers and basically every birdhouse craft ever At thirteen Nanny told me how her family was related so I grabbed the nearby paper towel and started recording At that moment the portraits became people parents siblings aunts and uncles I was nally able to see past the crafty fan girl I knew as Nanny to the child who lost her mother who struggled most of her life and who raised my kick ass grandma Six generations after Anna s portrait was made I sit around the table with my daughter Lily and tell her all the stories of the people places and moments that have happened since then When we visit our Ohio home I show her these homes and street corners Nanny s house that still feels like Statler Brothe r s and Pizza Rolls my Grandma Ruth s house and my mom s childhood bedroom This letter from Yrouerre Yonne France is 101 years old this Easter but it still feels relevant signed Your bro Roy My grandma is 82 and as sassy as she was in this photo with my grandpa she s always sassy and she excitedly shares stories each time we visit I grow more and more grateful every day that I have been blessed with such a rich and full history Portraiture is art but it is also identity Had these portraits been lost or destroyed erased by a single hard drive crash or hidden away in the depths of the internet where a child could not easily enjoy them then I d have missed out on a foundational found part of who I am Investing in an heirloom is not only about today it s about a million more tomorrows

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