Viola Davis just won an Oscar for her supporting role in Fences, to add to her Emmy, Tony and Screen Actors Guild Awards, achieving the Triple Crown of Acting. It was recently reported that she only has one photo from her childhood as she grew up in an impoverished environment, and no cameras were to be had.
While there are pictures from my childhood in the United States, for the longest time, we only had one picture of my toddler days in Vietnam, which contributed to my conspiracy theory that my mother was/is not my biological mother. My brother, who is a year younger, had a whole photo shoot as a newborn. Perhaps it is because he is the son, and/or perhaps it was easy for my mother to grab these photos as she was rushing to grab family valuables before escaping on my father's navy ship (...do as the romans do), but it always did make me sad that as the first born in my immediate family and maternal grandparents' side and the second born in my paternal grandparents' side (in loving memory) that my birth was not somehow celebrated with more fanfare.
Decades later, my paternal uncle in Vietnam was able to find a couple of pictures during that period.
Viola had commented that the look on her kindergarten picture was not a smile nor a frown but one of a child that woke up every morning thinking how blessed she was. I oftentimes wonder what the little girl in the picture was thinking as she seems to have the same open mouth, surprised/shocked/awed look. Even in some of the earlier pictures in the United States, she has that same open mouth reaction, as if she is incapable of smiling.
I am sure she holds the key to the mystery of the lost memories and the part that even I do not have access to. What do you see? Enlighten me...
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