Billy and Tiz

While I was home in Charleston earlier this month, I helped my sister Kathy look for the apocryphal codicil to Tiz's Will that would, we hoped, exclude Alicia from sharing in the disbursement of her tangible property. We checked every drawer in the house, sorting through piles of letters, handwritten notes, journal entries, etc., looking for documentation. We found several handwritten notes designating specific items--paintings, jewelry, furniture--to be given to family and friends at her death, but no codicil. Among all these documents I found hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of photos.

Tiz never threw away photos. Alicia had ripped off a fat album of black and white photos from the 1950's that we'd taken of family, friends, and students at Episcopal High many years ago. An album that chronicled our lives during the only period when we all lived together as a family (Kathy and Alicia left home for boarding school beginning in 1958). A terrific collection that Alicia would never return to Tiz, despite Tiz's repeated requests. Alicia also took our grandmother's photo albums of her life as a teenager (between 1900 and 1910) in Tennessee.

But I digress. I found several loose caches of photos scattered everywhere--in envelopes, books, underneath clothes in her dresser. Pictures of Tiz playing golf at Episcopal, of Ruthie and Kathy looking beautiful, of me and my huge grin. And of Alicia as the crazy person who was there to disrupt our lives with her savage cruelty. Nearly every picture of Alicia made her look like an uninvited guest whose sole purpose in life was to be an utter piece of shit.

I found this one lovely photo of our parents, taken in 1945 in Charleston shortly after Daddy had returned home from overseas. Daddy in the classic Eisenhower jacket; Tiz in a very stylish wide-brimmed hat fringed with feathers. And a very cool two-toned dress. I love this picture.

Billy and Tiz 1945