As i had to stop on a red light,
because i took a different road to go from point A
hoping to get to point B
I saw, in the middle of a modern boring, soul less small town
a place i discovered for the first time, because that day i had that urge.
A little warm house with a big garden, in the middle of a cold town.

In the big garden were two old men with straw hats.
The image was very unfamiliar and surprising to me.
Instantly, it took me to a "voyage" in time.

It was a very hot summer day,
the kind of day that is too hot to leave the comfort of my air-conditioned car.
The sun was at its zenith, it was a bit passed noon.
I was a bit hungry but...my curiosity won on my hunger.

Those two men were definitely
quite old, with clothes that could match their age, in a way.

That was it, no need for more, did i thought
while the light changed from red to green.
That was the birth of another urge:
i needed to go talk with those old men,
i had no choice, i knew deep down it is now or never.

I stopped the car in the shopping centre at the limit
of their garden, right after the green light.
How did this place manage to survive the farm days
surrounded with ashphalt, traffic lights, modern sidewalks,
a non inviting parking lot bigger than their entire land?

I parked Nellie (my car's name) and walked through the tall weeds, the
only psychological division between their land and that....parking lot.

With both their heads down, they did
not even notice i was walking in their garden...
I aimed towards one of them and was able to steel rapidly few pictures
that already spoke volume.

The old men stopped picking his vegetables onlly
when he saw two motionless feet just there, beside the next vegetable
he was about to pick...
In a very peaceful almost wondering manner,
He raised his head and looked at me, a bit surprised i must say...lol.

I said bonjour with a great sincere smile, he smiled back and also said bonjour.
Then... the conversation started.

I asked him if i could take a picture...he smiled,
and he said, why a beautiful young woman like you
would like to take a picture of an ugly old man like me?

I said i find you are beautiful and i smiled.
He smiled and... i just pressed the shutter.
The first authorized image was born.

Here are some of the images i made
that precious afternoon. I am so glad i stopped.

Because of the time of day,
the harsh light of the sun was difficult to deal with in some instances but,
the important was my connection with them,
the images that followed were just to immortalize the heart of the moment.

* * *
So...
The colour of their skin
was darkened from being too much in the sun,
it even looked like thick leather
shaping my eyebrows into a question mark.

They worked at a slow pace, from morning until dawn.
Perhaps the only pace they could afford
in the heat of the summer
and in the winter of their lives.

In no time, I learned they were brothers,
living together, rather surviving with obvious difficulties,
definitely missing the female touch, as they humbly
admitted in not so many words but, this being sais,
there was a huge sense of peace coming from them and that was beautiful,
behind the sadness that the smile and the little star they had in their eyes when
talking with me, could not hide.

Yes... No woman in sight.
Kind of sad and it pinched my heart
for all of what it meant...

They right away embraced my stopping by
my curiosity to know about them and their lives
and i guess, my manicured toe and finger nails,
my summer dress and my perfume too, i felt.
I could tell in the silence of their smiling eyes.

Their land seemed like
a left over of a farm,
their house needed fixing beyond words,
this house had not been painted since, at first glance,
easily 40 or more years. The curtains lost the glory and happiness
they perhaps once had...

In the garage, collecting dust,
there was their pri