My mom spent her last few years in a nursing home; little by little, she reduced her possessions until she had nothing of any real value. She did, however, manage to keep every available space in her little room filled with plastic tubs and containers filled with pictures and picture albums.
Since she passed away, this treasure store of hers has resided in my "junk room" upstairs. Most of the time I simply shut the door and pretend it isn't there.
Then I get on the Flylady bandwagon, and I'm ordered to set my timer and declutter the messiest room in my house for 5 minutes.
I would take a picture so you could see how hopeless the task is, but I'm ashamed to show you. Five minutes wouldn't be enough time to get to a box and take the lid off.
The thing is, Mother took the trouble, toward the end of her life, to put most of her pictures in albums: but the pictures are in no certain order. Next to a baby picture of me, taken in 1945, might be a picture of somebody Mother went to church with in 1998. And next to that you're liable to see pictures of my children taken in the 1960's, right beside photos of the great-grandchildren of Mother's second cousin twice removed, whom I've never had the pleasure of meeting.
Then there are many pictures of such poor quality that you wonder why she kept them at all. But there they are, stuck in an album.
I brought one of the containers downstairs this afternoon; I sorted through the contents and actually got rid of some stuff. I've toyed with the notion of tossing the whole batch out, without even looking through the mementos. But then I'll find a picture that brings back childhood memories, and I can't make myself be that indiscriminate.
I got rid of my mom's Bible today, the one she carried and read during her last years. My daughter took that off my hands. Lord knows, I don't need any more Bibles around here! The son-in-law stopped by to bring some bargain ground turkey I asked him to pick up at Price Chopper, and I sent the Bible home with him, along with some of my daughter's school pictures I removed from my mother-in-law's collection of keepsakes.
But with all that, I forgot to send the home-made peanut butter cookies I made for the daughter's family.
Oh well. The grandson who's living here will be glad to eat them.
HEY! COOKIES? We'll be stopping by tomorrow, to drop off the dog...SAVE SOME COOKIES! I figure that I will, someday, pass that bible along to one of the girls, making sure that they REALLY know who my grandma was.
ReplyDeleteThrow away pictures??? Oh No! Go thru them, take the ones you know who they are, discard the ones too out of focus to be any good, and find someone to pass the others on to if they might know who they are.... Old pictures are such a treasure and bring back memories that we have forgotten.At my grandmothers there are boxes of pictures, just pictures thrown in to boxes that my Mom and I, along with other relatives will pull out and pick thru. "Do you know who this is?" "When was this taken? I couldn't have been more than 3" "Remember that chair? That was a great chair to play behind" And on and on. LOL!
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of passing down your Bible to your children or grandchildren. What a cool thing to have - all of her markings and highlights where she read verses that guided her through the journey. How cool that your daughter gets that!
ReplyDeleteI agree with tossing the pictures that are too poor in quality or focus (though sometimes an out of focus shot still tells a great story; those I would hang on to).
ReplyDeleteShare some with your extended family. The rest? I would put them in new, acid-free/archival safe albums. Chronological order would be nice, sure. But if that task seems daunting, being able to visit those photos quickly (by access to the albums) is more important than order.
And don't feel obligated to put EVERY photo in the albums. Get several archival safe/acid-free photo boxes and feel free to file the duplicate shots (though I usually toss dupes and shots that are very similar). File any other photos that you deem unnecessary to place in the albums as well.
You CAN do it. Commit to 15-30 minutes a few times each week and see how much dent you've made by summer.
Blessings,
~Toni~
I have almost all of Mom's photos. The goal--to put them safely, organized into a storage system for my dad after I scan them for my sister and my aunt. I just haven't had the heart to start yet. I didn't know it would be so hard. My sister got Mom's Bible, I got her prayer journal.
ReplyDeleteMy "spare room" is the garage. It is always too hot or too cold or too something, so it stands the way it is. Ah well...
I would have volunteered for the cookies!!
I too have been going through my mother's load of pictures. I tossed out the ones that are so blurry you can't tell who it is anyway. There are just soooooooo many pictures to go through! I am enjoying the trip down memory lane and I get bogged down just thinking about things when certain pictures bring back memories that I want to think about. Some I don't. I'm hoping to scan more of them in the future for my blog so that they will be part of my online journal.
ReplyDeleteDon't change a thing about your blog! I read almost every day and when I miss a day I catch up on the ones I missed. I too will never have tons of readers but I like the ones I have and I just don't have the time or inclination to work for more. I just don't know how people have the time to read 40-50 per day and leave comments on each one. I am enjoying so much getting to know the people that faithfully come to my site and I agree with you it's quality not quantity!