Chaos File 007: “Hold Your Head Up, Wilma."

I bought this photo in an antique shop about 15 years ago for a dollar. I didn’t need it, but something about pulled at me so hard, I couldn’t leave without it. On the back, it says: “Hold up your head, Wilma. I would if I were you.” That line has lived in my bones ever since.

This photo has followed me to many different addresses, through breakdowns, breakups, and more new beginnings than I can count. It feels like I’ve lived a dozen lives in the time I’ve had the photo, but that message to Wilma has been there at every new beginning always reminding me to keep my chin up.

I’ve always had a strange draw towards the things people leave behind…like book inscriptions written with so much care that now sit forgotten on dusty shelves or old photos with lovely messages written on them meant to pay tribute to and preserve a moment in someone’s life that have found their way into a basket at an antique stores, like this one on FM 518 in Pearland, TX.

Things that were once precious often become $1 curiosities, and this 100 year old photo (if I had to guess) of two women I will never know is one of my most prized possessions. Wilma may have just broken a nail while picking flowers or lost her man in the Great War. I don't know what she was going through, but I’m having a rough roaring twenties of my own. I appreciate the message.

I hope Wilma held her head up that day. I’m holding mine up, and I appreciate these two for the advice.

xoarl