It's an old photo, so there are a few scratches. There's also the effects of a hair on the lens or something, because it looks as if she has a scar from being bottled in a bar fight. It's a big photo, too — slightly too large to fit my flatbed scanner, hence the cropping at the bottom.
I borrowed it from my mum last week with the intention of scanning it then giving it back. I'm still giving her it back, but not in its frame. This is why:
See those three circles? Those are woodworm holes. The whole of the back of the photo had been attacked by them, and some had made it through to the paper. The effect is to make the picture look as if it's been used as a dartboard.
Stuck behind the frame by my mother a few years ago was a note she'd written saying that although her grandmother looked stern, she was renowned for her exceptional kindness. That had been eaten by woodworm too.
I'm thinking now that I might have to examine the double-this-one's-size picture of my mother's mother's father that she has to see if it's also been compromised.
Memories are full of holes.