Rachel

Recently, an old classmate of mine shared a part of a quote from Tim Leary, "For every time you say club passwords like “Have a nice day” and “Weather’s awful today, eh?”, you yearn inside to say forbidden things like “Tell me something that makes you cry” or “What do you think Deja vu is for?” 

 Do you ever wonder to ask questions like this?

I've enjoyed using photography as an excuse to ask those different kinds of questions, becoming privileged to hear these recollections of a life lived.   The simple becomes compelling.

Usually, it is hard to find people who are willing to open up and make themselves vulnerable.  Rachel and I sat down at the Senior Citizens Center one day and I began to quiz her.  We later drove to the back park where she even posed in my butterfly wings.  She doesn't take herself so seriously and teased that I cause trouble.

Rachel was born in Northwood and her parents were surprised that not only did a baby arrive but that there were two of them.  Her parents named her brother Richard.  They became known as Ray and Rick.  Of course, Rick could not be dressed in pink, so Rachel wore a lot of blue bib overalls. 

She remembers going to a country schoolhouse and her first-grade teacher who let the little kids sit on his lap as they sang songs.  She played with paper dolls but mostly with boy stuff.  Maybe she will tell you about the time she bathed some kittens in the farm hand's whiskey.

When Rachel was a teenager, she did not know how to dance.  One evening, while Lawrence Welk was on the family television her mother told her father to give her some lessons.  She learned to do the Two- Step and Waltz.   I can just picture the tender moment of a father and daughter dancing to the music of Lawrence Welk playing in the background.

As young adults, Saturday nights were spent driving around, going to ballgames or taking in a movie at the theater in Hatton.  One Saturday night she met the love of her life while walking down the streets.  She would go on to marry Ernie who she said was a little romantic.  She remembers having to live with her in-laws for a couple years and needless to say it wasn't always easy.

Ernie and Rachel would go on to have three children, Debbie, Laurel and Dave.  She loved being a mom who enjoyed playing with her kids.  She loved going on the riding lawnmower with them.

Sadly, Rachel and Ernie knew the pain of burying a child as her son Dave died in a car accident, December 20th, 1980.  She shakes her head saying, "you never get over it."  She remembers that something just wasn't right that night, even the animals were acting strangely. 

Rachel also gave the gift of life to her brother Rick by donating her kidney.  She remembers how he ran down the hallway and yelled "Ray, I can Pee!!!".

Nowadays she wonders if we are headed into another war.  She would love to go to Arizona again.  She spent the morning in her kitchen baking a variety of homemade muffins.  She still loves to listen to good old Rock n Roll music and can dance a mean chicken dance.

As we wrapped up our little photoshoot we stopped by the Farmer's Market.  She wanted to say hi to some young gals who sell baked goods.  Rachel took care of their father in the nursing home, and they shared that he liked her.   Rachel spent 50 years working as a CNA and she sometimes regrets not taking the nursing classes offered in the hospital basement.

Thank you for sharing your time Rachel and even embracing the child inside by becoming a butterfly.