Family memories

September has arrived. Birthday month. Woohoo and Yippee! I’m looking forward to celebrating another trip around the sun.

I’ve been thinking about my Dad and Mom a lot the past few days. They are on my mind every single day but there are times when those thoughts are much more intense.

The past two days I have been spending some time going through family photos. Pulling photos for a slide show for my Aunt Norma’s memorial service in a couple of weeks. I’m glad that since I can’t be there I can at least help in some small way.

Going through family treasures brings many emotions. It brings smiles, laughter, tears, and heartache. Oh, and also thankfulness. Thankful that my Grandma Salter was smart enough to write on the back of most of the family photos as to who people are and the year in some cases.  Even so there are so many that I have no idea who the people are. The problem with that is there are fewer people still alive that will know who are in the photos. Time to get them scanned and shared with all of the family so the next generations have this information.

I know some of the younger generations haven’t shown too much interest but I was the same way when I was their age. At least if we can get things documented for them I will feel better. I think there is a point in our lives where this information does become more important to us.

Today I came across so many great photos. Photos of my mom and her siblings at different ages. Photos of my grandparents and great grandparents. I also found my great grandparent’s wedding certificate which is in perfect condition. Such treasures.

Now that so many of the previous generation are gone I regret not asking more questions and getting more answers. We videotaped my Mom one birthday weekend for over five hours. We asked her questions about our family and she told us family stories and history. Only a few years later she passed away. Her brother had passed before her and now her sister has passed away. Who will tell us these stories now? I’m so glad we captured these on tape. I then made copies for my sisters.

Unfortunately, my Dad passed when I was 24 years old. All we have are the memories of the stories he told us.

Today I awoke to the news that Shelley Berman had passed away at the age of 92. What does this have to do with today’s post? Well, when I was a young lady about to go out on my very first date my Dad played one of his recordings for me. “First Date” It was a very touching moment for us and I have never forgotten it. In fact, I purchased a few of Shelley Berman’s CDs years ago. As my parents were already heavily in my thoughts the news of Shelley’s passing brought tears to my eyes. I pulled out the CD and played “First  Date” and toasted to my parents.

Life is made up of moments. What seems insignificant at the time can later be something incredibly precious to you.

To everyone I say document who is in those photos. Now that everything is digital you may have tons of photos with no indication of who is in them. Do your family and future generations a favor…document who is in the photos and make several copies of your photos in case of computer crashes.

Get on to Ancestry.com and share what you know. This is an amazing site that connects you with distant family. Embrace this. One of cool things we did 17 years ago at a family reunion was hung a white sheet up across the garage door. We wrote the oldest family we knew and then everyone added where they belonged. At first there were only a few of us around but then as word spread around the party everyone came around to the garage and added their information. The sheet became this incredible document of our family tree. We took photos and then entered that into ancestry.com.

Life is short no matter how long we live. Document your stories. Share photos with family. Take time to reminisce about those special moment.

Embrace every single trip around the sun! Yup, we get old and our bodies change and we can’t do the things we used to do. But, you know what, lots of people don’t get the chance. So just ENJOY your life! I plan to celebrate every single day!