The Photograph
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Simone and Paul
Paul Shoemaker handed his camera to his younger brother Peter and sat down on the lush summer grass next to Simone. Peter framed the shot per his brother’s instructions - with the couple offset to the right, Paul’s flourishing garden in the background, and the summer sun shining with approval on the faces of a young couple in love.
Holding the camera steady and peering down through the viewfinder, Peter asked the couple to smile. Paul turned to face Simone, reached across to take her arm, and beamed at the radiant young woman nestled at his side. Simone returned his gaze - her bright eyes and smile acknowledging the truth in their hearts.
Peter pressed the shutter release … and time stood still.
The year was 1958. The place was Paul’s family farm in New Jersey. When Peter depressed the shutter release, there was a momentary interplay of light and chemicals that coated the camera film. That briefest of moments, however, captured the magic that would sustain the young couple’s relationship for the next 64 years. That moment, memorialized in black and white, became a testament to the enduring love of Simone and Paul.
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Paul and Simone Shoemaker have been fixtures at the Flat Rock Farmers Market for nearly 20 years. Most Thursday afternoons throughout the summer, they arrive at the market with fresh produce, plants, friendly smiles, and a quiet passion for promoting the local food movement. Their Holly Springs Farm is located in Mills River and they harvest their produce mere hours before they arrive at the village market. “You can’t get any fresher,” says Paul.
The couple met in Philadelphia in 1957. Paul was 16 and attending Girard College, a boarding school for boys. Part of the curriculum at Girard included social skills and the boys were being taught how to dance by the school’s social director. After a few weeks of practicing, a dance was arranged at the school and young ladies from nearby schools were invited to attend. Among those invited was Simone Stad who was attending Carson Valley School just outside the city. She was 14 years old.
Paul vividly remembers meeting Simone at the dance. “I danced with a lot of girls,” he recalls. “But when there was a break for refreshments I was able to sit with Simone and just talk for a while.” Paul felt a connection despite their very different lives. Paul grew up on a farm in southern New Jersey where his father worked his grandmother’s land. Simone’s father was a classical musician and her mother was a talented painter. When the dance was over, Paul thought it unlikely that their paths would ever cross again.
Then he received an invitation to a dance at Simone’s school.
As Paul tells the story 65 years later, Simone was required to invite someone to her school’s dance and she could only remember the names of two boys she’d met at Girard. One was Bill Walker. The other was Paul Shoemaker. She had to choose one. “So she went ‘eeny meeny miny moe’,” Paul laughs. “And I was ‘moe’.”
Paul “Moe” Shoemaker was elated. “I was so excited when I got that invitation to her dance.” He attended the dance and his initial attraction to Simone was confirmed. “I knew from our second date that I wanted to be with her,” he says now. And then he adds with a smile, “She didn’t let me know she felt the same way for a couple of years.”
Attending different high schools, and then being apart during their college years, Paul and Simone maintained a long-distance relationship for seven years. After high school, Paul went to Rutgers University and Simone, two years younger, later went to nursing school. When Simone finished her nursing education, they were married in 1964. Those seven years apart were marked by calls from pay phones and letters - lots of letters. “We still have a trunk load of our old letters,” says Paul.
Simone and Paul had two daughters. Lisa was born in 1968 in Ithaca, NY while Paul was getting a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology at Cornell. Laura was born in Hendersonville in 1973 after N.C. State University hired Paul to work at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center in Mills River. Simone went on to work at Pardee Hospital and what is now Advent Health. Later, she worked as a vision and hearing evaluation nurse for the Henderson County School System.
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On the day of the photograph, Simone’s mother had driven her to the Shoemaker’s farm in Deerfield Township for a visit with Paul. Paul was the student photographer for his high school and had his Ricoh twin-lens reflex camera at the ready. He wanted to make a photographic record of one of the infrequent occasions when the couple could be together. He handed his camera over to his brother and sat with Simone in the grass with his garden of corn and beans in the background - and a long life with Simone in his future.
Of course, 1958 was long before the age of digital photography. The photograph would not be developed until Paul returned to the darkroom at the Girard School later that summer. Standing in the dim light of the darkroom, Paul examined the small developed negatives and one image, in particular, caught his attention. He knew immediately that it was a print he had to make and share with Simone. “You can’t miss the connection between us,” he says with a smile.
Paul and Simone at the Flat Rock Farmers Market
Today, the photo of Simone and Paul is framed and is prominently displayed in the foyer of their house. Every visitor shares in the magic of that summer day in 1958 as soon as they enter the Shoemaker’s home. “We are still very much the young couple who fell in love 65 years ago,” says Paul.
Sometimes, images have the power to freeze and preserve time. And, even though Simone’s memory is fading, Paul likes to think that the photograph helps her remember a time when all of life stretched out before that smiling young couple - a couple who could see the future in each other’s eyes.
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Read more about Paul and Simone’s Holly Springs Farm here:
