Thursday 12 October 2017

Sitting Pretty



The little girl in our prompt this week is clearly posing for her portrait in a photographer's studio and she looks very sweet. Her beautiful dress reminded me of the following portrait of my aunt, Joan Patricia Morrison, who must only have been about a year old when it was taken in about 1922. As the first surviving child born to my grandparents John and Mona, she would have been their pride and joy.  Pat as she was always known is not sitting at a desk here, but she did grow up to become very studious and obtained her Masters degree at Oxford in the 1940s. 



                                              
        Here is Pat working away on some manuscript, with all her papers spread out in front of her. I imagine her desk was not big enough!

                                                

                          Here she is again, still sitting pretty in later life.

When Pat passed away in 2011, it was a very big task for my mother, sister and others to sort through all Pat's documents, photographs, books and other memorabilia, as she had thrown out very little, despite residing in a small council flat for many years.  I thnk my mother found it all rather daunting, and also it was quite emotional for her to read through many years' worth of  correpondence between Pat and their parents while she was working overseas.



  I've previously written a tribute to Pat and her life achievements which you can read here.


Continuing with the theme of the prompt, here is our son Kim, Pat's great nephew, at the computer desk in 1997.

                          

and our daughter and Pat's great niece, Laura the teacher, at her desk in her classroom. With a class of 20 or more six year olds, I don't imagine she gets to sit down there very often!



Finally two photos of our granddaughter Isabelle, who is Pat's great great niece. This first photo was taken on a visit to us in Melbourne earlier this year. What Google Photos identified as a desk is in fact a dolls' house that was made for her mother by Isabelle's paternal great grandfather. It was placed on the table so as to be out of her curious little brother's reach.


Here is Isabelle back home in London, sitting at her mother's computer desk and wearing a dress that I made for her Aunty Laura above, back in 1989.




For more posts that may or may not be prompted by that pretty little girl sitting at the writing desk, go to Sepia Saturday #389

10 comments:

La Nightingail said...

Neat pictures and cleverly matched to the prompt. My favorite is the one with your granddaughter playing with the dollhouse. I love dollhouses. I still have, and display, the one my father made for me 60+ years ago. Back then it was furnished with plastic furniture from Woolworth's. Today it's all Victorian. :) Funny thing. That plastic furniture from Woolworth's? I went online to see what it was worth today? If I furnished my dollhouse exactly the same, it would now cost $700. Amazing. (and just a little scary!)

Molly's Canopy said...

Wonderful story of your Aunt Pat as well as the multi-generational collection of photos here. I can't even imagine the challenge of going through Pat's papers after she passed. I'm hoping to have all of mine tucked away in some repository or other...but life (and blogging) has a way of interrupting the decluttering/accessioning process :-)

Postcardy said...

I thought the doll house was a desk too. My father started making an elaborate doll house when I was young, but for some reason he never finished it.

smkelly8 said...

I want to go around to all my relatives and get a portrait of them at their desk.

Mike Brubaker said...

A splendid medley. I like the one of your aunt sitting amidst papers. Something Vermeer-like about the window light and her intent concentration.

Wendy said...

A+ for this answer to the prompt. I like the picture of Pat away from her desk with papers strewn around.

Kristin said...

I like the one of pat with her papers on the floor around her. And I like the dollhouse. I still have the one my grandfather made me long, long ago. Sometimes I look around at all the papers I have and think I should organize them a bit better.

ScotSue said...

A lovely match to the prompt and a lovely tribute to your Aunt Pat. What a wonderful stash of family papers she left and I am sure these will be a constant, and emotional link to her.

Barbara Rogers said...

What fun reading about your Aunt Pat, and the various papers/desks/dollhouses...but mainly the pretty little ladies. Great to hear your daughter passed her childhood dress you made on to her daughter also!

Boobook said...

You've put together a lovely collection her Jo. My favourite is the one of Pat with her papers spread all over the floor.