DJHP: Kimberly's Page

Sunglasses

The mornings I spent with my mom and grandma were always the best. I would wake up from light creeping through the crack of my curtains, as it filled my room with the summer sun. Once I tuned into the real world, I could hear mom and grandma's loud conversation as it carried throughout the whole house. A morning like that only meant one thing, that there was an adventure ahead for us. I walked into the dining room stiff and quiet, still adjusting my eyes to the light as I sat down ready to listen to what they had to say.

"So Kimberly, you want to go out yard sale shopping with us today?" Grandma asked me as I drank the rest of her coffee.

"But you can't take a long time getting ready, you can just go like you are," my mom said as I sighed loudly and rolled my eyes at her. SNAP! Grandma turned to me and said, "Just do what we do, wear your sunglasses as your makeup."

I knew that's what she would say. Sunglasses were our pride. We were the type of ladies that wouldn't leave the house without looking decent, at least that's one rule I learned as a young lady.

Sunglasses were our mask. It didn't matter if we were at our worst, we always looked as best we could so that other people would think that we were better than we are, but we would never admit that.

We each had different sunglasses, depending on our personality.
Photo By: Jorge Lopez

"Oh Kimberly, you're just going to love them. I found them at my work place, and they are so you!" Grandma Sandy is The Queen of Sunglasses. When my grandma moved to the hot, sunny and overpopulated city of Phoenix, Arizona, sunglasses were a way we kept connected. In Sun City, sunglasses are an essential. It's the place where my roots began and where my family lives. The off-white, square, and black striped sunglasses I got in the mail two weeks later couldn't have been anymore perfect. They framed my face perfectly and the black stripes made it look as if I had jail bars on my face. It made them a little silly and I couldn't help but love them. Sunglasses is something that grandma and I could always share, and no one could take that away from us.