A Picture Worth 1,000 Words

People say that one picture speaks 1,000 words, but I disagree with this argument. How much can you truly say about one picture? I was thinking about a picture in particular today. It used to sit in the formal sitting room when I lived with my mother and stepfather. The picture was a replica of an original that my mother found when she had visited the Philippines the year before.

The picture was of my grandmother, someone who had died before my mother was a teenager. I still cannot tell who she was from that picture. The original picture was black and white, small, probably a 5x7 and was torn and at one point had pieces missing, which were replaced by a professional who had drawn them in. It was yellow from old age and somewhat brittle.

It turns out that I did not know much about my grandmother or mother for that matter. My grandmother was young in the picture, probably around 25, and had short, curly, dark hair and a face that was rounder than mine. She was not smiling, but I don’t know if that indicated anything about her. I used to pass the picture everyday and wonder what she must have been like.
I suppose that we do not know much about the people around us, their lives, past experiences, hardships, or even the truth behind some of their stories. Sometimes I wish I had taken the initiative to ask about the lives of people I knew. For instance, I lived with my mother for nine and half years, yet I still learn things about her every day. I did not know how hard her life was when she lived in the Philippines, that she was dirt poor. I did not know that she was the only person with my grandmother when she died in the back of a jeepney. I was with her almost every day for nine and a half years and I hardly knew her.

Sometimes, I wonder why I did not know these things. They were a part of who she was, yet I knew nothing about them; it’s like I knew nothing about her. I suppose I still do not take the initiative to ask about people’s lives. I like to ask questions, but am I truly asking the right ones? Am I really finding out more about a person or only finding a small piece of the big picture?