Maravilla for Mom

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Maravilla for Mom

Photographs by J R Compton,
Anna Palmer, Mary Compton and others

Mom asked me to photograph what she always called "Maravilla," so when Dad (John T, Jack) and she (Mary) retired to San Antonio, she'd remember it. I'd shot it many times, but that time was special. I saved them all to what I thought was my most reliabe hard drive. Then it crashed, taking a half a terabyte of stuff with it. Including those precious memories.

I didn't want to disappoint Mom, so I didn't say anything. Then, the Wednesday before, Anna reminded me Sunday was Mother's Day, and I suddenly realized I could gather the photographs I did have, from Christmases, summers, birding trips and other visits to Camp Grandma and Hotel Grandpa and do what I could. This is what I did.

J R Compton

Julie, Jack and Jay

I tracked down every shot I could find. Anna delivered hers, and I discovered I had a 'roll' of Mom's own photographs near the end of their stay there, some of which I had shot. Those are marked here as OMC (on Mom's camera).

Jay, Jared, Joyce and Tom

What this project became is images of people in rooms and spaces in and around our long-time Lower Rio Grande Valley home. Those lost photos were of objects and places, not people, though there are plant pictures here, too. There'd have to be. Along with all of us, that's what Mom did.

Julie, John, Joyce and Jay

Zapping that hard drive may have been The Universe's way of popping me on the nose reminding it's people that make a home, not things. These photographs are inhabited by the best people in the world, family.

Julie, John and Jackson

And many of these shots have never been seen by anybody but me, and I'd forgot I even had a lot of them. (Turns out I'd also forgot another page that has about a dozen of these same photos — though not as large or nicely produced.)

Two Boys with Flags

Boys with flags

I used to think I could remember every photograph I ever shot. But I don't anymore. I do think I remember shooting this and the next pictures in Mom's kitchen the day Anna and I filled a U-Haul truck with stuff from Maravilla. OMC

Carmen, Mom and Lucha

Even some people who really aren't family really are. OMC

Joyce unlaxing in the kitchen

I've delighted in mixing time and visits and people on this page that's like an informal walk around the house. First in it, then out and around it.

Patsy finds a bottle

Some of these are moments I remember. Like when Patsy got up on a little ladder to bring down a bottle for a special celebration. Maravilla is many moments gathered here.

J R, John, Mom, Dale, Tom

Many of these are posed pictures of who we are. The guy in on the left is me. I assume Anna shot it. In the middle is Mom, for whom this page is a Mother's Day gift. Here, I usually refer to people by their first names. To know who everybody is and how we're all related, you'd need a souvenir program, but there aren't any.

Fresh citrus

I didn't really plan this. It just grew.

I expected it would revolve around specific places in Maravilla, and that started with the kitchen, where most people — family, certainly — start at Maravilla. The hearth, the food, the social — pretty much everything begins and often stays in the kitchen, which essentially winds around three rooms.

More pictures are shot there than anywhere else except maybe the pool in summer. Oops! Just caught myself using the present tense for this place. Maybe that's how it always should be.

This adventure will wrap around the house like a person walking, room to room, space to space.

Jay,

Jay, John, Tom and Dad watching TV

As always, if you have any corrections, let me know. I'm terrible with names and might someday have to do that souvenir program I spoke of. My contact information keeps changing, but my latest email is always linked from my Contact page, and I'd love to hear from you, and I want all the info here to be correct.

John T and John M in the rec room

I'm not going to explain every photograph. From here on it's mostly pictures and brief captions. Thanks for taking this walk with us around Maravilla.

Haley trying to sleep

Chaz and Olivia

OMC

Out onto the patio

Joyce in the rec room

For his birthday, Dad gets as many $1 bills as he was old

Jackson sets the table

Joyce and Mom at the keyboard we got her

Note to Grandpa

A Christmas Star

Mary Ann and Todd

Looking in at the tree and the Jimmy Stewart movie

The whole movie's online and full-screen.

Tom, the Puzzle Master

Sean and Amanda

Christmas lights

The fireplace

Through the Living Room Window - copyrigth 2005 JR Compton

The patio, the pool and the pump house

watching tv

Jared and Jay watching TV

John measures the living room floor

and Libby - asd

Brian and Livvy

Jackson Renard Firecracker Compton

Flowers by the front window

Unfurling the Butterfly National Flag

OMC

The Great Maravilla Archive Program

Jennifer, Jay, Joyce, Patsy and Julie

The Great Joyce and Jennifer Maravilla Archive Project to save all the photographs and memorabilia from the long back hall. OMC

Blue bowl and green plant

Mom & Dad in the back hall full of family pictures

OMC

Anna sleeping in the middle bedroom

Tulips in there, too

Tangle of sheets

Mom as Butterfly

OMC

Shower curtain in the back bath

"Mary Ann's room"

Except, of course, that when it was last Mary Ann's room, it was green and purple. Always seems strangely comforting to see white instead.

My robe with end of hall on right

Mary Ann in the Sewing Room

Threads

Colored threads

Cocks and Doodle-doos

Hawaiian Print in The Boys' Room

Now we'll wander around some of the more outdoor spaces starting, of course, from the kitchen end of the house.

Pop in his workshop

Same Guy — but busier

Citrus ready for distribution

Welcome sign on the garage

Photo by Anna Palmer

Me and Dad doing some serious ratcheting

Usually when I do a page of photographs, there's none of me, because I'm behind the camera, but somehow I got a whole roll (er... memory card load) from Mom's camera, and this and the next and some others here are by her or on her camera. If I don't credit me or Anna, somebody else did it. OMC

John, Julie and Jennifer

OMC

Anna, J R, Toothpick and Uhaul

Anna, J R, toothpick and U-Haul truck

OMC

The driveway unusually wet with rain

Dad and Dale in the Driveway

Dale and Dad

OMC

Mom with Lucha's kids and Carmen

Mom, Lucha and her kids and her sister Carmen

I may have shot this one, too. OMC

Clare and Dale in the yard

Clare and Dale

OMC

Mom's cactus garden

The Ladybug mailbox

Anna Palmer photo

The driveway to Compton Drive

Palms on Compton Drive

3308 Compton Drive

3308 Compton Drive — fruit for sale

Anna Palmer photo

Compton Drive looking toward the Two-mile Line

Palms and a blue sky

Aloe Vera Forest

The JCs on the porch

The JCs on the Porch

Left to right: John Compton, Julie Clifton, John Compton, Jennifer Connor, Jackson Compton, J R Compton, Jared Connor, Joyce Culbertson, Jay Culbertson posing on the front porch. My camera. Anna must have shot it.

Then there's everybody else, including the JCs. Let's see if I know these people: John T, Jackson, Julie, Mom, John, Amanda, Sean, Haley, Nathan, Mary Ann, Todd, Patsy, Tom, Anna, the digital J R, Jennifer, Jared, Joyce and Jay

Jennifer & Jared

Christmas lights

Front of the house at Maravilla

Sunset Hibiscus

Chimes

Tom and John out front

Tom & John

Mom must have taken this picture. It was on her camera. It's wonderful of my next two brothers. Great smiles. OMC

Little red flowers

Towards the grove

Jackson and Jared

Dad in his little grove

Ring Picker

If they're little enough to go through the ring, they're not ready to be picked yet. Dad's ring is attached, so he doesn't lose it out there.

Amazing Clouds

Big tree with little grove

The back yard through the garage

Cleaning tools

Sunflower in Mom's beautiful garden

Rose

Budding Angel Trumpet

Hose

Red Flowers

Jennifer and May

Jennifer and Maya by Mom's Poinsettias

OMC

Big blue sky from the pool

One of Mom's Birds of Paradise

Patsy and Tom

Patsy and Tom smiling for Mom

OMC

J R in the Pool

J R floating in the pool

These two photos are by Mary Compton

Swimming pool covered for winter

OMC

Sego

Palms and a curling sky

Antennae

Floating on my back in the pool, when I saw this, I turned around and swam back, so I wouldn't bump my head.

Up the Papaya tree

Rain Gauge

No numbers and hardly ever any rain.

Cheesecake on the Diving Board

Cheesecake on the diving board

I think I remember taking this photo and seriously wondering about the cheesecake antics of women photographed near a pool. Jennifer, Libby and Joyce. OMC