I figured that now was as good a time as any, so I've been going through my parents' pictures and papers and such. (Spent a lot of time in tears, too) Mom and Dad's wedding pictures, pictures of me as a baby with my bunny (A white stuffed bunny that my Grandma gave to me when I was born....I kept that bunny until Hurricane Agnes wiped her out in 1972), pictures of my sister and brother, my aunts, uncles, and cousins, my grandmother. My parents looked so young and they had their whole future ahead of them. Gosh, my mother was pretty and my dad was quite handsome. I kept a lot of pictures for myself, but I have a box full for both my sister and my brother, too. Kept some for all the grandkids to go through, too. And some of the pictures of cousins and such, I'm going to give them to my cousins on Monday. For the pictures of people I knew, I wrote down their names and relationship to me: cousin, second cousin, aunt, uncle, etc. That way, there's some kind of history there and future people will know who's who.
My mother always made us a jeweled calendar...all the kids, some of the cousins, etc. We've been getting them for years now. And she did finish her calendars for 2013 back during this past summer. We have them and last night, my sister and I cut them out and attached the dowel rods and such so that we can give them to people. That's my task for Monday....take the calendars to my cousins and to some of my mother's friends who we know would receive them. Those will be the last calendars we'll ever have from Mom. And while I'm doing that, I'll give my cousins some of the pictures that I've found and saved. I'm sure Monday will be an interesting day, too.
I also have my mother's old high school yearbooks as well as the stuff from when Dad was in the Marines. Lots of pictures of him when he was at Parris Island in South Carolina. And then while we were at Camp LeJeune in North Carolina. I sat down and went through all that stuff, too. I found that my dad had perfect school attendance for years! He had to quit school in the eighth grade to work to help support his family, but until then he never missed a day of school.
But it was an emotional experience today. I found a picture of me as a baby in my dad's arms and I completely broke down. He looked so proud and happy. And I found a picture of him at a birthday party for one of my aunts from about 10 years ago and he has the biggest smile on his face. I put it in a frame and it's sitting back here on my desk. I miss my dad so much sometimes. Mom, too, of course, but man, I miss my dad.
My mother always made us a jeweled calendar...all the kids, some of the cousins, etc. We've been getting them for years now. And she did finish her calendars for 2013 back during this past summer. We have them and last night, my sister and I cut them out and attached the dowel rods and such so that we can give them to people. That's my task for Monday....take the calendars to my cousins and to some of my mother's friends who we know would receive them. Those will be the last calendars we'll ever have from Mom. And while I'm doing that, I'll give my cousins some of the pictures that I've found and saved. I'm sure Monday will be an interesting day, too.
I also have my mother's old high school yearbooks as well as the stuff from when Dad was in the Marines. Lots of pictures of him when he was at Parris Island in South Carolina. And then while we were at Camp LeJeune in North Carolina. I sat down and went through all that stuff, too. I found that my dad had perfect school attendance for years! He had to quit school in the eighth grade to work to help support his family, but until then he never missed a day of school.
But it was an emotional experience today. I found a picture of me as a baby in my dad's arms and I completely broke down. He looked so proud and happy. And I found a picture of him at a birthday party for one of my aunts from about 10 years ago and he has the biggest smile on his face. I put it in a frame and it's sitting back here on my desk. I miss my dad so much sometimes. Mom, too, of course, but man, I miss my dad.
