Mee Maw and Pee Paw Together

I like this photo.   It’s one of those photos that is calming to me.  There’s something relaxed about it.  You can tell that it’s not a posed photo – neither of the subjects are looking at the camera.  Maybe they were aware of it and were trying to get ready for a posed photo.  Or maybe they were surprised by the photo.  They would have known right away that the photo was taken.  It’s a flash photo.  I don’t have a posed photo from the same day, so maybe a candid photo was the goal.  I have always liked candid photos.

I particularly like this one because it is a photo of my paternal grandparents.  We called our grandmother Mee Maw, but she was born Germaine Erie Patureau on August 6, 1895, in Crescent, Louisiana.  Pee Paw was born on the other side of the state in Westlake, Louisiana, on January 9, 1893.  He was named Robert Joseph Landry, but most people knew him as Rob, Bob, or Pappy.  They were married in 1921 in Lafayette, Louisiana, and then made their home in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

They had their first child in 1923 and their eighth (and last) in 1936.  My dad was born in 1929, and he was named after his father.  So he was Robert Joseph Landry, Jr.  He went by Bobbie, Bob, and Pluto.  His parents became grandparents in 1947 with the birth of The First.  Plenty more followed.  By the time that my sister Jodie was born in October of 1953, there were already seven other grandchildren. 

I’m thinking this photo was taken from around that time.  My grandparents look about the same age as they did when my parents brought Jodie home to Lake Charles for the first time to meet the family.  That was around the beginning of 1954.  By that time, grandchild number nine had already arrived.  And those grandchildren probably recognize a lot more from this photo than I do.  I wasn’t born until after Pee Paw’s death in 1957.  I also don’t remember this house, which I assume was their home in 1954.

If Mee Maw had lived in this house when I was a kid, I think I would have remembered that door with the two arched panels of glass.  It looks like it is an exterior door, and even the wall in the room back there looks like an exterior wall.  But it has furniture in it!  It looks like an old porch that was closed in at a later date.  We have that in the house that we are living in now.  The furniture doesn’t look familiar either – neither the rocking chair nor the chair or sofa.  I’m not familiar with the cake plate that Mee Maw is holding, but it is evident that Pee Paw was.  He’s looking a little expectantly at that covered dish.  He was probably looking forward to a tasty dessert!

But I do remember my dear sweet Mee Maw.  She was such a gentle, kind woman.  I missed out on knowing Pee Paw personally, but I did get to be around my grandmother for the first thirteen years of my life.  I have good memories of her from family get togethers through the years.  She would also come to visit with us and teach us card games and watch TV with us.  She told me a funny little lie once and she cured a sick spell I had at her sister’s funeral.  I know I shouldn’t say this, but I think I might have been her favorite!

That’s not really true.  It’s a running joke among the cousins.  I never thought I was her favorite.  I always felt loved by her.  If she had favorites, so be it.  That would not prevent her from having enough love to spread around.  As Lottie from the movie Enchanted April would say, “She had a tub of love.”