Photographs and Memories

That is title of an old song that I listened to as a 7th or 8th grader. I knew all the words at one time. As I remember, it was all that was left of a relationship..photographs and memories. My sister has been helping my Mom organize and separate her photographs into books for each of her children, grandchildren, and nieces and nephews. It is an amazing project and they are doing a terrific job. I have looked through my books and am stunned by how much has happened in my life and how much both I remember and have forgotten. I look at photos from when I was in high school and I can remember like it was yesterday to be that 15 year old girl. I remember what it felt like to have my stomach flutter because "he " was standing so close to me. I remember how my heart broke when a few short months later, he told me he didn't want to see me any more. Mostly when I look through these books, what I see are smiles and laughter. Some are the usual holiday shots. Everyone has a photo album full of them. We have always had fun holidays and it is captured sometimes in black and white and sometimes in color. There are photos of my parents as teenagers when they were dating and then when they were first married. Photos of my grandparents both as I remember them, but also when they were young. I used to look at these photographs trying to understand what made some of these people tick, how did they become the people the were. I finally came to the conclusion after doing some genealogical research and talking to some of them that basically everyone did the best that they could. They may have been limited by fear, or circumstance. I learned to have some empathy for some of those who came before me. This is where I come from. I have some of the the true greats that have come before me also. My Mom is one of them. I hope that I can be one of if not the great ones, at least one of the good ones.