Words That Kept Me Going | A Letter From Grandma
I got this email in November 28 2008, from Kathryn B. Foytack | Thomasville, Georgia, USA
To this days I still felt so touch by her observation, thank you for your kind words, I really don’t know what to say. You give me so much inspiration and really kept me going. Here is her original email to me without any alteration, I did asking her permission prior to sharing it here in my Blog.
I so admire the quality of your photos of your beautiful son. The new one of him running with his head down is just too perfect…so like a little boy. The ones where his mom is holding him are beautiful, and her expression is so serene…Madonna like (not the Madonna of the movies).
The one you titled exhiliration is wham! bam! in color. So much that it takes your breath away. No bang on this one in black and white. The new one in sepia is glorious. Love the family photo, but you look up tight in it….oblivious of the fact that you have heaven and right right there beside you.
I like the one where he is struggling against grandpa, cause of course he is not used to him….so typical of a little boy. You have managed to capture him because you are clicking that shutter with your heart and not your hand.
While your other portrait work is marvelous,to me it does not have the same quality the pictures of your son has. I wish I could give him a great big hug. I have poured over ALL of your pictures that I could pull up and I also read the wonderful comments. You are a famous man, and justly so inasmuch as you are so talented.
Perhaps I am prejudiced toward your portraiture as I used to teach oil portraiats, painting so many myself. Then too, I dearly love children. We have 4 children, 8 grandchildren and so far 4 great grandchildren. Makes a big family when you add in all the spouses. We live in Thomasville, Georgia, USA and Spring Hill, Tennessee. I send my very best wishes to you and your beautiful family and hope to see much much more of your quality workmanship. Thank you for many hours of enjoyment.
Kitty (Kathryn B. Foytack)
. Oh, the prize winning photo of the lady in the boat with 2 grandchildren….so perfect….perfect triangle…..and with cropping of just the boy on the left….picture within a picture….so perfect for portrait work. Beautiful composition
And the Frozen Moment that you thought was not as good as your friend`s. Wrong. BETTER. Shows curiosity, anticipation, a little defiance, strength, a boldness and yet a timidity and so very much more. No wonder it won so many prizes.
By the way, I am the 80 year old great grandmother of India Poppy Rose Herning (Amelia Hambrook married my grandson Matthew)
Again, thank you for letting me see into the heart of Wazari
Kathryn B. Foytack
Thomasville, Georgia, USA
Another one after I get her approval for posting it in my blog.
I am dumbfounded that you were touched by my observations of your beautiful pictures. Of course you may share my words on your blog. Words are wonderful and can be inspiring but I have found that at 80 years of age the words seem to escape me and I cannot pull them out of my brain at will. However, a picture…..now that is imbedded in the brain and heart and can be pulled up at any given moment to comfort you, give you that warm cozy feeling, inspire you in a way that words just cannot. Words can dissipate, but that picture is THERE. Some people are talented to paint pictures with words. Then others can tell a whole story with just one picture. You do that.
Wazari, I have never written a letter of appreciation to anyone in my entire life, but I just felt moved to do so with you. My husband used to enjoy his fan mail so much and when he was feeling down, it would really lift his spirits. (In his youth he was a professional baseball player for the Detroit Tigers). Even today at this age he will receive a fan letter and it truly makes his day. So, words matter…they matter a lot. I cannot remember one word of what I wrote to you, but I can remember every single photo that you took of your son. When I was first looking through them, I thought you were female because such tenderness came through in each and every photo. When I saw the ones of him with his Mom, I thought that was YOU and I beamed at the loving look towards the child. I was amazed to scan further down and realize you were a MAN…a very loving and caring man. You impress me. Again, thank you for the many enjoyable hours of seeing through your eyes.
Kathryn B. Foytack
Thomasville, Georgia, USA
8 Comments
ikhwanmuda
Salam buat bro wazari, nice new virtual home:) harap masih ingat dgn nickname ikhwanmuda nih:) hari pertama dapat e-book en. wazari, saya sangat excited nak buat amali sampai pukul 2 pagi, then hibernate my laptop. esoknya on 0630 lepas solat subuh, nak continue on my tone tutorial… MALANGNYA, everything disappeared! hard disk rosak. laptop not working at all. sumenye yang saya simpan dlm laptop… gone just like that… pegi ke kedai komputer berdekatan… bad news, sebab hard disk tak blh selamatkan lagi dah… anyway, thanx for the 6 hours and 30 minutes of e-book 🙁 sekarang just tumpang2 notebook orang… aduuuuuiiii…
azfiqs
Salam bro. If I’m not mistaken you had posted about this letter sometimes ago in your previous blog or might be in your flickr, I don’t remember. Yup, it truly is an inspiring letter. I am sure it really means a lot to you. Rasanya kalau saya dpt a letter like this mau berenti terus keje and amek gmbr je..hehehe..I am grateful to have the opportunity to know somebody like you. Thank you for the friendship and hopefully 1 day I can meet you and have a picture with you. (This is my dream to be honest)
admin
Ikhwanmuda, Saya pernah mengalami perkara yang sama, memang satu pengalaman yang amat sukar untuk kita lupakan, saya pernah kehilangan gambar HaiQal pasal hard Disk corrupt, tak sempat nak alihkan kepada external hard disk. Pengalaman mengajar kita, sekarang ni, semua gambar saya simpan dalam 2 hard Disk external untuk mengelakkan kejadian yang sama menimpa. Banyakkan bersabar, insyaAllah ada hikmahnya sebagi pembuka tirai di tahun baru agar kita lebih berhati-hati…
admin
Azfiqs : Memang betul tu, saya pernah post di blog yang dulu, tapi blog tu dah takde, puas saya geledah email saya, berjam-jam mencari email “Grandma” nie. Bukanlah tujuan saya untuk bermegah dengan surat ini dan bukan juga untuk menunjuk-nunjuk, ianya hanyalah sekadar untuk menaikkan semangat saya di permulaan tahun baru nie.
Supaya saya teruskan apa yang saya buat dengan penuh minat dan “Passion”. Supaya saya tidak khuatir dengan jumlah orang yang mengunjungi blog atau flickr saya, saya ingin tersu melakukannya kerana “PASSION” dan mungkin ada orang yang menghargainya secara diam-diam tanpa meninggalkan sebarang komen ataupun ulasan di flickr ataupun di blog saya, sebagai contoh surat “Grandma” di atas.
Saya sungguh terharu dengan gaya penulisannya, dengan ketelitannya, satu-satu gambar anak saya dilihatnya dan ulasannya tentang satu-satu gambar tu memang cukup terkesan di hati saya. Ulasan dari orang yang dah banyak pengalaman dalam hidup, ulasan seorang yang dah berumur lebih 80 tahun, bukan mudah untuk menulis email yang sepanjang dan sedetail itu dan itulah antara faktor yang menyebabkan email tersebut amat terkesan di hati saya dan insyaAllah akan menjadi penguat semnagat saya meneruskan apa yang saya lakukan selama ini dengan penuh kesungguhan.
InsyaAllah kalau ada kesempatan, ada masa dan umur yang panjnag kita boleh berjumpa, in fact I like to meet all my Virtual Friends in Real Life, that’s my dream also…
nono
Well said and I totally second that! Knowing you through bro Chot (lepas terserempak masa outing kat Melaka February 2009), saya mmg agak kerap melawat your photostream kat Flickr but due to kesibukkan yang melampau saya dah kurangkan aktiviti flickering saya… Tak jadi kerja dibuatnya sbb ralit dgn gambar-gambar superb kawan-kawan Flickr (which include you, of course).. Hehe.
Portrait of your little handsome Haiqal mmg terbaek! 😉
shaff
for those who think actions speak louder than words, they are wrong. words do matter. words are a form of an action especially when they come from the bottom of a heart. When people say “I’m sorry” it is an action because it is an act of apologizing. When people say “I love you,” it is an action of being in love. In the case of this grandma’s letter, it is not just beautifully written, but also I can imagine it can uplift one’s spirit. Now that’s an action… keep it going, wazari..
azim.zainudin
this is the best entry ever! =) thanks for sharing ww!
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