Emma, Mother of my Father's Father

So for Christmas, as she often does, my aunt Sue sent us a card, a pretty tree ornament, and some old family pictures. Both of my paternal great-grandmothers' single portraits (when they were young women) were in there. Both of my great-grandmothers were coincidentally named Emma. Emma, the mother of my father's father, had such a strange-looking picture: stolid, as many at that time were, but one whose stolidity naturally evoked respect. Her face was rather like a gypsy's, as are many on my dad's side of the family--dark eyes and hair, thin-faced, and almost harsh-looking. (These are traits which I didn't inherit, with my blond hair and blue eyes, and a rather unbecoming laugh.) looked at it and was like, "Wow. This is my great-grandmother. Ain't it cool to be related to someone like this? What would I say to my great-grandmother, if she and I could speak together just once?" Well, I didn't continue on this vein long, but just for old lang zine, this is an address to Emma, Mother of my Father's Father:

My first impression of you, great-grandmother, is that you resemble a gypsy, those wandering people who fascinated me for all of sixth and seventh grade. You are a pilgrim, in many ways: you were a German in New Zealand for all of your youth, until you married Jacob and made the perilous voyage to America. You were young, I know, around twenty--a good Lutheran, you were, to marry a preacher. I wonder what you would think if you knew my faith is proportionally less than yours. But forgive me, great-grandmother. Be consoled by the fact that your son Walt and grandson my father are both very strict Christians--perhaps too much so, for their own good. I don't know where Walt stood on the age line of your eight children. What I do know is how, when you left for America on that tightly-packed ship, your youngest child died of some disease before he saw the United States. God rest him. But you probably bore it well--if you are so strong and stolid as you look in that picture. Sadly, I'm not sure we share too much in common, personalitywise. But who could tell? I've just seen one picture of you, and maybe we have a good deal of similarity to our souls.

Ah well. I've just been wanting to get my thoughts straightened out on that subject. A strange thing, addressing a photo. But hell. Old lang zine!
TFATF
-Ahaneen
p.s. Not all the names in this post are accurate, though Emma is.