The Old Photograph

Long long time ago,a girl named Suzy Bracha found a photo of a woman. She didn’t know why at first,but she had a weird feeling when she looked at that woman. Suzy stared at the photo for a few minutes, and then felt that this woman wasn’t  a stranger. She was very young, not older than she was at that time. She looked happy and so beautiful. Suzy decided she wanted to know more about her.

She took the woman’s picture with her everywhere. She asked the milkman on the way to school if he knew the lady. She asked her teachers at school if they knew that woman. She even asked the nice neighbor, but none of them could tell her anything.

She kept carrying the photo close to her. At night when she went to bed she put the photo under the pillow.

One morning, Suzy left the photograph under her pillow and went to school. Suzy’s mother, while changing her sheets, found the photograph. Suzy was an only child,and they loved her more than everything, yet, they were very strict with her. Suzy came back home not knowing her mother had found that picture. When she got close to her mother’s cheek to kiss her for hello, she noticed something was wrong. She never saw her mother cry, but that moment felt like she was about to. Her mother turned to her with a grave face, handed her the old photograph and said: “Suzy what ever you do, don’t you ever forget I am your mother and there is nothing in the whole world that could change it.”

Suzy felt like she could hear the sound of her heart falling to the ground. Why would she say such thing to her? What does it mean? She really did not have any idea until that moment. As the seconds went by the answers became clearer to her. The photograph her mother was holding in front of her face was a photo of her mother, the one who gave birth to her. She was adopted.

Without saying a word, Suzy reached out her shaking hand, took the photo that felt as it weighed more than it should have and went to her room. She did not leave her room until the next morning.

In her room Suzy cried and kept staring at the photograph trying to imagine a conversation with the beautiful woman in the picture. She had so many questions to ask. Finally, she fell a sleep holding the photo in her hand.
Suzy woke up with the first light of the sun knowing that she can never mention that photograph ever again. She could not stand to see her beloved mother hurting from that. So, she hid the photo in a box, inside her closet, behind the clothes and never spoke about it ever again.

Years had passed and Suzy got married and gave birth to three children of her own. She has never forgotten about the woman in the picture, although she gave up meeting her a long time ago. As it turned out, destiny had its own plans. One morning, while Suzy was on her way to work, a woman approached her. One look was enough for her to recognize that face. How could she forget?
The woman spoke slowly with tremble soft voice. Her name was Sol Yulzary. Suzy could feel how hard it was for her. The woman told Suzy that she was very young when she found out about her pregnancy, and her family did not approve a bastard child. With tears in her eyes, she told Suzy that there wasn’t a day that went by without her thinking about how much she wanted to get to know her.
Suzy’s heart was about to explode while hearing the words she was so longing to hear, yet her face stayed sealed. Even at that moment she could not forget her mother, who was always there for her, and how much pain it might cause her. Suzy explained politely that she honoured her mother too much to let anyone else take her place.then,she turned around and walked away,feeling her steps getting heavier.

The woman from the picture watched her daughter as she stepping away from her, moving forward to her own life she had built. With a heavy heart she respected Suzy’s request and kept distance from her. Once in a few days she could not stand that distance,so she would sit across the street from Suzy’s window and watched her as she sent her children to school.

Suzy kept that secret locked in her heart for many years. It was not long before her grandaughter, Hila, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, that Suzy decided to share the story with her family. Suzy was flooded with a sense of relief. Suddenly, her heart felt lighter, and she could breath again.However, she still had feelings of regret at the back of her mind.

A few days after Hila had left the hospital, she went to visit her grandmother with the little baby. She put the little gran-grandaughter in her lap, and set in front of her. As Suzy held the child in her arms and wrapped her with love, Hila spoke. “My dear grandmother”, she said “your beautiful story does not leave my thoughts”. “Beautiful? It is full of regrets!” Said the old lady. However, Hila didn’t agree. In her eyes, this story is about an enternal motherly love, and, most importantly, it is about the respect that a loving daughter has for her mom. Then, with two blue, sparkling eyes Hila added: “In your life, you had room only for one mother. Nevertheless, both of your mothers loved you and you loved both of them. I think that your biological mother knew that if given the opportunity, you would have liked to get to know her. She loved you, both of them did. That is what I take with me.” Suzy wiped her tears and smiled. Her eyes wondered to the tiny baby that she was holding. Then, she said “what a perfect little thing. How should I call her?” 

Hila touched Suzy’s hand, looked in her eyes and said “Sol, call her Sol”.