Photos of a Remembered Childhood

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On this ninth anniversary of Timm’s passing, I share some slide scans by sister Molly, obtained from boxes of slides from Mom's years as family photographer.

These are early pictures of Timm, the "before" part of the story. As time lengthens from his passing, it is that period of Timm’s life which somehow seems truest to that passing of time. But this has more to do with memory in the hearts of the living than the story of the person who has passed. History becomes mystery, biography deepens into myth: The older we get, the more connected we become with the earliest parts of our story. Timm the child grows in vibrance as we look back.

These images also show Timm in living connection with the family who lived on. There were all are next to him—Molly dressed up as a princess, Dad holding him to view a passing parade, the kids together on some outing to the woods. There's Timm with Mark Hellinger playing next to Molly and Kitty Hellinger on one of our visits there, romping off the Hellinger dock. Timm was just one of us back then, not one of the earliest one to fade from living memory.  

(Ironically or fatefully, the youngest Hellinger would tragically follow him.)

When I look at these pictures I see Timm as always with us, even now. 

So why not celebrate that joy we feel, holding Timm’s eternal smile in our hearts?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EASTER BELLS AGAIN

In the iron time to come, yesterdays are a field
in spring opening in one bloom, its silken sashes
teared with pollen. And you are walking there,
brother, rapt at the child leaping in your pace.
You lift your head to behold a sky so blue,
your eyes hold all life for a single moment.
Beholding purity’s deepest hue. And then
you walk out of sight, on to that place of
neither angst nor winter rue. You have become
that flower, pressed in the book of final doors. 
Gone now for these nine years and us just learning
why days as fine as this can break the heart in two.
And you keep on walking with us following behind,
finding hope, this happiness, in another Easter tide.