I had the pleasure of visiting Oakview Memorial Park in Antioch, CA yesterday so my girlfriend could clean her grandmother's headstone. As she was busy scrubbing away I decided it would be a good time to do some exploring. As I was doing my normal observations and taking a few random shots something caught my eye. I see not too far away a headstone that reads as you see here "Big Mama Viola Red". At first I thought that this was just a wonderful name. I know that all these people buried in the cemetery meant to world to someone. But Big Mama struck me as what was probably once the matriarch of her family. I imagined huge get togethers at her house, family and their children running around and everyone eating and having a good time. I'm guessing Big Mama probably had a specialty dish that everyone was always looking forward to. I know for my mom it's always the world famous baked beans. Oh I could taste them as I stood before the grave of Big Mama. I also noticed on the headstone that there was an actual picture of Big Mama as she once lived.
I'm not exactly sure why this picture was chosen for the headstone. It looked to me as if Big Mama was trying to say "Don't mess with me. Big Mama is not to be trifled with." She struck me as the same type of person my mom is. The one grandma that had no problem smacking someone elses kid. Well as long as they were semi related. Heck my mom would even smack my friends. So I'd like to say thanks to Big Mama for giving me something to think about yesterday and allowing me to remember how important those times with family and the get togethers are because they definitely don't last forever.
I had the pleasure of visiting Oakview Memorial Park in Antioch, CA yesterday so my girlfriend could clean her grandmother's headstone. As she was busy scrubbing away I decided it would be a good time to do some exploring. As I was doing my normal observations and taking a few random shots something caught my eye. I see not too far away a headstone that reads as you see here "Big Mama Viola Red". At first I thought that this was just a wonderful name. I know that all these people buried in the cemetery meant to world to someone. But Big Mama struck me as what was probably once the matriarch of her family. I imagined huge get togethers at her house, family and their children running around and everyone eating and having a good time. I'm guessing Big Mama probably had a specialty dish that everyone was always looking forward to. I know for my mom it's always the world famous baked beans. Oh I could taste them as I stood before the grave of Big Mama. I also noticed on the headstone that there was an actual picture of Big Mama as she once lived.
I'm not exactly sure why this picture was chosen for the headstone. It looked to me as if Big Mama was trying to say "Don't mess with me. Big Mama is not to be trifled with." She struck me as the same type of person my mom is. The one grandma that had no problem smacking someone elses kid. Well as long as they were semi related. Heck my mom would even smack my friends. So I'd like to say thanks to Big Mama for giving me something to think about yesterday and allowing me to remember how important those times with family and the get togethers are because they definitely don't last forever.
Thanks for the reminder of dear friends. Hazel Robinette was lovingly known as Big Mama. I didn't know her real name until I was grown. She was a family friend and at one time we lived next door to her. If we didn't like what we had for dinner we'd see what Big Mama cooked. She baby sat my Mama and also us kids growing up - that's how long we'd known her. She was the back bone of her family. I was very sad the day I learned she's passed away.
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