These two photos turn up at 41.
Sent by Anne Dunne,
close personal friend of Josephine,
Salv’s youngest sister.
I intuit that the baby here is David John,
Roma and Frederick’s first born.
Maybe 1966…..or thereabouts.
(identity of baby corrected by MaryAnne to Anita, to whom Salv and Jo were/are godparents. March 2021)
What interests me particularly now,
some five months after Salv’s death,
is the protective gesture of Salv’s hands
both right and left,
shielding the baby from any harsh sunlight.
I know this gesture well.
And it is deeply poignant
To see it so well captured here.
One shot is outside St Monica’s,
the bluestone Catholic Church
very close to Salv’s family home
in Moonee Ponds.
Josephine and Salv,
presumably the godparents
hold the baby
and Salv
still a dashing unmarried man
holds his left hand protectively
over the baby’s face,
shielding him from the sun.
The second shot is on the verandah
at 5A The Strand
with parents, Roma and Frederick
and godparents Josephine and Salv.
Again the hand
this time the right hand,
shields the baby’s tender face
& sensitive eyes from undue harm.
Past the columns and the fence
the tree tops of
Queen’s Park can be glimpsed.
Historical data it now may be
but I imagine
I can see
in the gestures
of this one young man
the foretaste of the tender father
he was destined to become!
MaryAnne: November 2020
Remembering Salv Caleo 