It is no secret that I love photography.  But one thing I really enjoy is old photography.  So much, in fact, that I  buy old photographic images on Ebay.  It doesn’t matter that I don’t know the people.  I just love to see their lives from so long ago.  Their stories.

I like to see the look in their eyes.

But every once in a while, a photograph will come with a story all bundled up with it.

Tonight, I’d like to tell you about  Carlotta and Maybelle.  They were best of friends as early on as they could remember.  They met when they were three years of age, in a small town, called Cranston, Wisconsin.

There was a brewery in Cranston.  Nearly everyone in the town worked at Havermaele and Sons Brewery, including Carlotta and Maybelle’s fathers.

So from the time they were three, they grew up together on Kensington Street.   Their houses were catty-corner.

Unfortunately, Maybelle’s father drank too much.  And he was mean.  Mean as sin.  He used to hit Maybelle on a regular basis, for no good reason at all.  This made her terribly sad.

But the one bright spot in her life, was Carlotta.  And they were glad it was that way.  There she found refuge, kindness, peace.  And of course, plenty of fun.

They called each other Carly and May.  And there wasn’t a day that passed when they weren’t together.  Until they turned 12.

It was that year the Great Depression hit.  Times got hard, and the brewery closed.  Maybelle’s father decided to move the family out of Cranston, and away they went.  There was no word of where they were going, and Carly never heard from May again.

When Carly turned 21, she decided to move from Cranston to a bigger city, with better chances.  Chicago it was.  The only job she could find was a waitress gig, at the Golby’s Famous Diner….  Home of The Big Golby Burger.  Three months into her job, on a Sunday morning, she went over to wait on table three.  And who was sitting there….. but May.

They hugged and laughed and felt joy right down to their toes.  And right back to being the best of friends… they flashed there in a second.  It was like they never left each other’s side.  Soul mates, true and true.

Carly and May shared this beautiful friendship, this gift, until the day Carly died.  She was 87.  And after she passed, May found a way… to go to the cemetery every Sunday…  and leave a single dime  on her grave.  It was their inside joke.  It was the tip she never left for her lunch the day they reunited…. and it something they had laughed about often.

May died three years later.  She was buried next to Carly.  They were lucky enough to have found a home.  A home of friendship.  A home of shared hearts.

So yes, this photo came with all sorts of information…. a story packed right in.

It could have come in the box from Ebay, or maybe it came from my imagination….

But either way…. most every person comes with a great story all wrapped up inside…. just waiting to be told.

“Strange as it may seem, my life is based on a true story”  —   Ashleigh Brilliant