Once a Year

The spring season always brings about a change, weather it is the flowers that suddenly want out or wardrobe pieces that move from the back to the front of the closet.  The Fairfax family has always used this time to capture the essence of their aristocracy with a family portrait.  It has been a long-standing tradition that stretches back generations beyond the current soil, to the other side of the pond.  

On portrait day, each respective patriarch rounds up his brood and heads to the manor all dressed in their best.  The little ones are meticulously groomed and the women are modestly adorned with either a single string of pearls accompanied with a brooch, or white gloves.  Those who stray away from this rule are strategically hidden in the last rows.  

Infighting, resentment, betrayal, and buried secrets keep them at odds for 364 days of the year. But on portrait day, there is a ceasefire and grimaces are replaced by the forced smiles of a proud family, even if only once a year.

© LaRonda Moore

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Inspired by FFfAW Challenge #108.
Photo courtesy of Louise with The Storyteller’s Abode.