While clearing out and organising my Mom & Dad’s house for them (which has taken me nine trips home now), I came to the closet that has all of their picture albums and loose pictures in boxes and envelopes that filled one half of an entire closet.
These were before digital cameras and many before colour film. At first I was very excited about the idea of going through all of them, partly to reminisce and partly to realize all of the memories that our family had created throughout the past 50+ years.
By the time I got to the thousandth picture the excitement began to wear off a bit. You see I tackled this task as I did all of the others in their house, by setting up a system to sift and sort, deciding which ones to keep and which ones to get rid of (there were many doubles as my Dad used to order doubles of each picture on the roll: one to keep and the other to give away).
After looking through every album, box and envelope in the closet one by one I estimate that I have been through a few thousand pictures. This was a process that took four visits home over a period of a year.
My goal now is to scan most of these photos into my computer, organise them and then create digital photo books for the family.
In addition, I want to put all of the pictures on DVDs and give them to our sons Jonathan & Joshua to have for when they have children.
This way they can be passed down from generation to generation, keeping the memories alive of those we have lost along the way, but also those of us that are still here continuing to make more family memories.
Pictures can fade, get lost and be damaged, so by making DVDs it makes them easier to save, store, view them and pass along throughout time.
As I sat scanning our family pictures covering so many memories created at family gatherings, vacations, holidays and many other life’s celebrations covering a span of over fifty seven years, I couldn’t help but wonder where the years had gone.
My emotions kicked into high gear; many pictures making me smile and others bringing tears to my eyes. It reminded me that time is flying by and it waits for no one.
By just clicking a button on my laptop computer, I started a slideshow of pictures. Within a few minutes I have clicked through 57 years of my Mom & Dad’s life together – my parents young to old.
What happened to the time when my parents were vibrant, energetic people living a full life travelling the world?
Now they spend their days at home, their own home that they have lived in for 50 years. I still have a few big boxes of pictures to go through and scan into my computer to complete the scanning process (for now).
I am very focused on this project and am hoping to complete it in a few weeks so that I can begin creating digital photo books for the whole family.
Remember that life is brief and very fragile and only loaned to us for awhile. So live life to the fullest every day, take pictures to capture the moments and create loads of memories.
Family is everything, so make time for them today as they may not be here tomorrow.
