Remembrances for My Daughters

Over the past few weeks, I've attempted to create a blog. I've had more than my share of false starts. I created a page, a title, chose color and graphics, only to realize that I had nothing unique to impart, nothing to say that hadn't already been said before. Our world has been inundated by people with opinions and clever points-of-view. We've reached a saturation point. That's my opinion, at least. I decided that I don't want to waste what's left of my life on repetitious musing. The fact is that the people who love me are likely the only ones who will genuinely care to hear about life from my perspective, and so I've decided to write a memory blog for my children . . . and for their children, too.
 

Near the end of her life, it occurred to me that I didn't know nearly enough about my grandmother. When someone is so much a part of your life, you don't realize how much you don't know about them. She was living in Arizona, and when she came to visit for the summer, I would ask her questions about her past. What was her childhood like? How did her family celebrate the holidays? What kind of house did she grow up in?

We pored over old family photographs, and I asked her to identify the faces. On some days, she couldn't remember at all, but then a day or two later, she'd give a name without hesitation. That's how it is with memories. They're not like photograph albums that you can just pull off the shelf whenever you like. Sometimes they're there. Sometimes they're not. That's why they call them "fleeting".


I didn't learn nearly enough from her, and then it was too late. What I wouldn't give to have her back again to share more of her stories and to tell her what I've been able to discover about the history of her family, things that she never knew but that I was able to piece together using the memories she shared with me and the genealogical information available now on the Internet.

In our busy lives, the important things like memories often get lost. So documenting our family stories for my girls seems a worthwhile use of blog space.  I can't promise that there will always be timely posts because sometimes life intrudes upon the best-laid plans, and I can't promise that there will be total recall because my brain doesn't seem to work that way.  What I can promise is that I will do my best to eventually document all the stories and pictures and memories that I've managed to collect and every now and again send you these postcards from the past.