Dalia: the older the violin the sweeter the music

It was my mother’s 80th birthday this week. A former ballerina, Dalia still keeps fit and goes to the gym several times a week. A few days ago I posted a short video to Facebook where I filmed her dancing at her birthday tea party which was viewed to a quasi-viral level; her glamour and vitality are still stunning. Here are a selection of photos I took of her as part of a college project circa 1990.

My mum posing with her old photograph album in her bedroom; I particularly like the sentiment embroidered on the cushion as it seems very appropriate to her. Unlike many people she has always been upfront about her age; in fact often flaunting it as people respond with incredulity to her youthful appearance:

Some more portraits- this one is a composition with lots of silk:

 

 

At her dressing table:

 

Here she is looking at the aforementioned photo album:

 

This is a double portrait of me and my mum at her dressing table:

 

I was revisiting the book My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout and noticed I’d highlighted a couple of lines: There is now a large interest in ancestry, and that means names and places and photos and court records, but how do we find out what the daily fabric of life was?

Below are a couple of photographs that do not feature my mum yet by extension represent something about her identity. The image below was taken a few years ago in her ground floor loo. She folds the toilet paper like this herself – it is not done by a cleaner. To me this represents her perfectionism, hospitality and love of homemaking. Her attention to detail is channeled into this neat fold:

 

This is my mum’s magazine basket, a cornucopia of nostalgia and pride in her Israeli upbringing:

 

I have an ongoing project on Ancestry on this website which includes some amazing old images from my family’s archives- here’s the link.

And this is a clip of my mum dancing solo on her 80th birthday, then chivalrously joined by her husband, who is well into his 80s:

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eia7PdyM3v4[/embedyt]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 thoughts on “Dalia: the older the violin the sweeter the music”

  1. Wonderful images capturing your mother, both beautifully and perfectly. & with the hyperlink bringing you to a brilliant pictorial historical delight & further insight into your family roots and heratige. Too found the everyday family objects wonderful…very inspiring. Thank you for sharing.

    Reply
  2. I remember how beautiful your mum was to me when I was a kid and how much I loved just looking at her when she would come over for tea, always looking spectacular. xx

    Reply
  3. Love this so much. Bring so many childhood memories.
    And how she kept this beauty, perfection, and happiness to life is just so inspiring. I’m so happy you took all this pictures. Thank you xoxo

    Reply

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