This is my grandmother, Jessie Ann Gaebele. She either took this photograph herself (she was a photographer at the turn of the century) or it was taken of her by the man she worked for. I love this photograph. She told me that her mother called that dress her "kept woman dress" which really annoyed her no end because she said she saved $.25 a week for six months to buy that dress herself.
In my novel about her life, A Flickering Light, I use this photograph along with four others. My grandmother is the narrator for these photographs but the rest of the story is told in third person through her eyes, her employer's eyes and the eyes of his wife. It's an intriguing story I think and I hope you'll like it when it comes out April 21, 2009.
In the sequel I'll be using additional photographs. The process of exploring the pictures, glass negatives I had developed, has been an interesting journey. I've been "reading" the images and unveiling her mystery but also mysteries of my own. I think that's what happens when we read. Who knows what mysteries you'll discover about yourself as you read her story.
