The person behind the camera

does not usually appear in the photograph. (I am ignoring "selfie sticks" and mirrors here.) 

It came as a real shock to me yesterday when I realised I do not actually have a photograph of a very, very close friend - now deceased. I was asked to provide one for a newsletter  and could not do it. In the course of trying to find one I contacted someone else. No, she did not have one either.

My wonderful friend was always the person behind the camera. Looking back I also realise that even she took very few photographs. As I avoid having my photograph taken if at all possible there are very few of me but Middle Cat could provide one if necessary - and the state newspaper could hunt in their morgue and pull up a few I suppose. All the same I will avoid the camera if I can.

E... was not camera shy. I suspect it just never occurred to her that there might be an occasion in which she also needed to appear in the record of the event. Her sister was never interested, indeed refused to use a camera at all. 

And so I had P... hunting yesterday. She is elderly and I felt guilty at even having to bother her about something so apparently trivial. There was a good reason for it all however, a rather sad reason. We are winding up the scholarship fund set up in her name. It was not something I wanted to happen but it simply is not possible to continue it. Over the last few years it has allowed almost two hundred girls in two "developing" countries to finish their secondary education and make them eligible for tertiary help from other places. The first country was one where E... and I both had a friend, a nun who ran the camp for unaccompanied children. The other country was one where E... herself had worked. It has all been a lot of very, very hard work but a great adventure helping those girls. Some of them are now teacher, nurses, pharmacists and even a doctor. 

I thought of this as P... promised me to ask another member of her family this coming week. I also thought - perhaps we do have a photograph of her, many photographs. She is reflected in all the girls she taught and those who had the further benefit of her bequest.