I was going through some old photos of my husband and came across some of him on holiday abroad. He was pretty young when the photos were taken. In some cases, he has no memory of the event, but sometimes the photo can spark a hazy recollection.

But one photo, captioned “On the Grand Canal, Venice, Italy” brought back a very crystal clear memory.

“That caption’s correct,” he commented, “but not quite telling the entire story. What’s missing is my absolute terror for the water. I couldn’t swim and I was worried that the gondola was going to tip and I’d drown.”

In thinking about it, my husband’s comment would have made a more interesting caption “On the Grand Canal, Venice, Italy. Son terrified of drowning.”

As a favour to my husband, I did a layout of the photo. I included the original caption and then added my husband’s take.

Wanna know something? My husband’s story makes the photo make a lot more sense. The photo shows three pairs of eyes looking in the direction of the camera - my father-in-law, my sister-in-law, and the gondolier. My husband isn’t looking at the camera. He’s staring at the water over the side of the gondola.

Every picture does tell a story … sometimes more than we suspect.

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