Love Thomas, c. 1900
Love Thomas, Member of the Wedding
If Baxter was pining away, styling himself as the rejected suitor, his future wife, Love Thomas, my grandmother, was watching her friends become brides. In this wonderful photograph, she is the second young woman from the right, gazing at the bride as if to fancy herself in a bridal gown. The identity of the rest of this wedding party remains unknown. They are a surprisingly homely lot, I'd say, in spite of their finery. The man standing to our right of the bride bears an eerie resemblance to Franz Kafka. But he likely became a banker or lawyer, like the other young men here, stout pillars of their communities. And the women? Don't they look grand in their white dresses? Let us not think too hard about their fates.
[contents] [Love and Baxter's wedding announcement]
