The Photo's Memory

I have been trying to restore an old photo for someone in the group home. A fellow staff person found this old 2-x3 inch old black and white photo on the floor in one of the bedrooms. It is stained, wrinkled and creased and there is no identifying dates or names on the back. We showed the photo to the person we figured it belonged to and he did not recognize the people in it. Considering the condition and the size of the photo it is no wonder. In the picture it shows a family in a nondescript backyard. The father is holding his son in his arms. The mother is cradling a fat cat in her arms and is standing close to her son and her husband. Their son has a big grin on his face and his arm is wrapped around the cat’s head. The centre of the group is the cat and the young boy. Looks, love, contentment and the cat connect all three. The cat has the look of one used to being mauled by humans. Did it realize it gave a young boy happiness in that moment? Somewhere along the way that boy became a man who will tolerate cats to some degree but no other animals. In that moment they were unaware of what the future held. They may have had an inkling of the course of their lives, to work, to live, to endure, to love. At the moment they had their problems but who didn’t. At that moment a fat cat was part of their group, sharing a moment that would be frozen in time. What is lost is the story that goes with the picture. The cat long since deceased, the father passing away long ago and the mother just a few years back. There are no close relatives to look at this photo and regale and remind the son of what once was. So I started the long and tedious process of fixing this picture to make it as clear and presentable as possible. Maybe there will be something there to spark a memory of that family that seems so lost in time.