I've been working on the encephalitis lethargica thing, collecting documents to try to obtain the medical records for Dennis' grandmother from state hospitals in California and Washington.
I came across this iconic photo in one of Jim's albums. A young Lanaya sitting with her boyfriend (Jim)'s mother, Elie. Looking at house decorating magazines. You can see the Sunset Magazine on the floor (I tried to get the date on the magazine but I couldn't). I think Lanaya said she was looking at House Beautiful (or similar).
Look how intent she is. She is determined that she will have a home and that she will make that home beautiful. Which she did throughout her adult life. She had tremendous gift for style and color and a huge interior decorating talent. In fact, she used to work on my house. She would come in and say, "You need a mirror there." or "I think a small table would work well." And the next time she would come she would have the mirror or table and she would install it. She even rearranged my bedroom because she felt it needed to be done. Good thing, I wasn't sensitive about that sort of thing. I thought it was fine because I'm crummy at that.
The whole thing about this new project was Lanaya's lack of a mother. No mother. Mother gone. Institutionalized and nobody was talking. Elie (Jim's mom) loved Lanaya, the daughter she never had. And here they busy themselves on something that they both are very interested in. Especially the young Lanaya. She looks so young here, I'm guessing the mid 1940s. She and Jim eloped at age 19 in 1946.
Lanaya knew what she wanted to do and these magazines were the key.
Wonder who took the picture.....
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