Judy Jorgensen

Granny Madden was my dad’s grandmother. I don’t remember much about her. Physically, she was short and plump and seemed to favor cotton housedresses. And while I had a whole mouthful of teeth (more or less), it appeared she had only one, a single eye tooth. I always watched for a flash of it to appear whenever she talked. And that was all. I’m sure we must have spoken, at least a little, but I don’t remember a conversation. As far as I know the picture above is the only one that exists with both of us in it. I’ve asked Dad about her. I think the word that he used was “outlaw”. I think he called her that partly because she used to come to the “holler” with a paper bag full of candy bars for the kids. He said she was poor and wouldn’t have had the money to buy them, so he was pretty sure she had gotten them some other way (an illegal way). I hope that wasn’t the case but the fact that she was willing to run into trouble with the law to bring her grandkids a treat also says something about her character.

I was looking at old photos and I saw an image of myself, from a time before I re-found my faith.