New Year’s Day is a natural time for reflection and the setting of goals. It was also the birthday of my grandmother, Dorothy Daly Bartholomew. She was a New Year’s baby of 1908. I took this photo of her with my old Canon film camera in 1997, just a few months before she died.
My grandmother was a talented and accomplished artist. She recognized my passion for art and photography when I was a child. When I was nine years old, my mother bought an enlarger and film-developing supplies at a yard sale. My grandmother helped me convert her bathroom into a makeshift darkroom so I could develop the film from a pinhole camera* I’d made. It was one of the most exciting days of my life.
My grandmother understood my need for creativity—for art. I can’t recall if I ever thanked her for that. I hope I did. I was thankful then, and I’m thankful now.
* You can see kind of what I built in this article.
Dorothy Daly Bartholomew and her cat, Stephanie, in 1997