This is the world’s ugliest picture frame, and I’d like to talk about why I love it. The frame’s aesthetic should speak for itself, but if it’s not clear in the picture, it’s made of that cheap-souvenir resin that tourist trap tschotskes are made from. It’s official name in our house is “the angel-butt frame”. It was given to Michele by Mrs. Halford, the lady in the picture with her, and when my wife opened it, I felt a physical repulsion. This is perhaps one of the greatest mismatches between the material quality and emotional quality of a gift I have ever encountered.
Joyce Halford was Michele‘s kindergarten teacher, and Michele was in the first class of kids enrolled in the school. Mrs. Halford went on to be the principal of the elementary school, and Michele was the valedictorian of the first graduating class of four kids. Since the tiny school wasn’t accredited, Michele had to test for her GED that summer, just to get into college. A decade later, when Michele graduated medical school, Mrs Halford had her daughter, I think, drive her from San Antonio to Houston to watch Michele graduate. She sought Michele out in the crowded George R Brown convention center afterwards to speak the words of love and pride and support, which she’d been giving for a quarter-century.
On our drive home, I mocked the angel-but frame to Michele, but marveled at the generosity. This woman had been my wife’s first teacher. She had seen the shy, bookish girl graduate, and become a shy, bookish doctor. I knew we would keep the gift, but I didn’t think I would ever want to display it. It lived in a closet for several years. However the frame, like the Grand Canyon, the ocean, and Mrs. Halford, as you spend more time with them their grandeur becomes apparent.
Her picture doesn’t normally live in the frame; it’s the wrong size. I dug this picture out of a box, and knew I had to share the story and the frame. The frame now protects pictures of some of our best friends and their then newborn son, now attending college. It has pride of place in our dining room.
Mrs. Halford died last year.