This is a photo taken in La Verne, California, in 1940. The woman is my grandmother, Grace Dunton Sellen. She’s holding Joann Dee Waite, her granddaughter. The little girl in front is my sister, Norma Jean Calder. It would take an expert to guess the time of year, but I like to imagine it is spring, and someone has asked to take a picture of Grace and her two grandchildren. I know she had others at the time, but they were all living out of state.
My grandmother at the time was younger than I am now. She had given birth to seven children, one still living at home. Three of her four daughters settled in or near La Verne, and their children grew up near Grandma and Grandpa’s house. The California families got together every Sunday, usually at that house, after church. It must have been a happy life for the ones that were capable of being happy. Unfortunately, it didn’t last forever.
My sister’s father abandoned her, and during the war she and our mother, Velma Eloise Sellen Calder, lived in poverty. After the war my mother married a second time, Norma became the third wheel. During her teenage years she was passed from home to home. In 1952 she was in a terrible auto accident, and the use of her legs was limited for the rest of her life. The boy driving the car married Norma out of a sense of responsibility. In short order Norma had three children, the last one just before her divorce in 1958. The children’s father disappeared, then another man appeared and disappeared, staying only long enough to help make a fourth child. Then they all disappeared. The last time I saw Norma she was wearing a wig, having lost all her hair to chemotherapy. She died soon afterwards from cervical cancer.
Joann Dee, later to be known as Jodee, developed brain cancer in her 30s. Operations extended her life, but diminished her cognitive ability. She died in 1993.
Two young lives, blissfully unaware of the tragedy that awaits them. It's scary.
