For Mothers' Day, a Photo Essay

As Mother's Day arrives, a photo essay — several generations of my family, mothers holding babies:

This photo (a warped and faded old tintype) is my great-grandmother Catherine Ryan Batchelor holding my grandmother Hattie Paralee Batchelor in 1888:

And now Hattie holding her daughter, my mother Hattie Clotine Simpson, in 1923:

And a photo taken the very same day, with the second "mother" of my mother and her siblings, a wonderful woman named Rosa Dorn, who helped to raise them, and who is holding my mother in the photo, with my mother's siblings surrounding Rosa:

And, finally, my mother holding me in 1950:

A very happy Mothers' Day to all mothers in each of our lives, with gratitude to the many who mother each of us in many different ways in the course of our life journeys . . . .

The 1909 Mothers' Day card is from the Old Design Shop blog.