Bag Lady

Bag Lady?  Well, yes.  There have been a few times in my life when I have been a bag lady carrying so much baggage that it's been difficult to get along - and not just when I've been going on holiday or doing the monthly shop.

If we are talking about origins, the first time I really began to think of myself as a bag lady was back in 1994.  My marriage was on the rocks and I need to get away.  But I had nowhere to go.  I just knew I had to go and I knew I had to start preparing to do just that.  Rather naively, I went on blindly from one day to another not knowing what would happen.  Meanwhile, I had to start packing up anything I wanted to keep from the wreck.  The only bags I really had access to were carrier bags from supermarkets and the like.  So I packed up my belongings gradually and deposited them with various friends around Birmingham and the Black Country, becoming known as the Bag Lady in the process.  Thank goodness for friends who just gave me what I needed with no judgment, no questions.  And the miracle did happen, I met someone who had a spare bedroom.  She offered it to me, knowing very little about me, and took in me and some of my bags for as long as I needed it. I will forever be grateful to those who took in my bags and the bag lady.

More recently, and on a much happier note, I spent a lot of time in the City Centre with a certain Blipper who was preparing for her RPS panel using the beautiful shiny reflections around Grand Central.  Kathy doesn't travel light in photographic terms and I more often than not found myself standing and watching the photographer at work, guarding and holding on to the bags.  And so, I became the Bag Lady again.

This shot was taken at Snow Hill station this afternoon - she only had one bag so hardly qualifies as a Bag Lady, but she brought back all the memories of the times when I have been the "Bag Lady".

Rather ironic that the old memories come back today just after my blip about the women of old who struggled so much for any sort of independence.  Those women of steel who have given us some of that steel to try to do some of the things we sometimes just have to do...