Preserving memories

I have spent countless hours writing in journals ("blogging" before blogging was the hip new thing), keeping scrapbooks, taking video, and making photo albums.  After an especially memorable weekend, I've been busy updating all these things.  Sometimes I wonder if anyone will ever look at all these things I've poured so much time and effort into.  Will they rot and mold, get tossed in the trash or burned after I'm dead and gone?  I decided I'm at peace with whatever happens to them, because for me, the joy is in making them.  I love to look back through old pictures and read the stories of when my kids were babies and the things they've said and done.  I like reliving the good moments and even looking back on the bad ones to see how far we've come. 

There's a history of dementia among the women in my family, and while I don't want to curse myself, I have seen early evidence of it in myself already.  Sometimes my grandma doesn't know who I am.  She loved preserving memories too, and sometimes I'll take an old photo album that she made many years ago and go over it with her, looking at the people in the pictures, talking about the old stories.  Sometimes she comments politely in a neutral way, and I know she doesn't remember any of it.  Other times she doesn't even comment, just stares blankly.  But once in a great while, I see a spark of recognition and there's a brief moment of connection before she retreats to her lonely world again. Maybe I work so hard on preserving the memorable events of my family for myself, because I fear I'll forget.  But watching my kids leaf through their scrapbooks and photo albums, laughing and enjoying them, I realize that I do it for them too.

If you ever want to see any of my albums or even watch some old family videos, I'd love to share them with you. And I'd love to see yours too!