Memories are fragile

My Aunt Dot became the custodian of all the remaining pictures on my mom's side of the family. In 2016 or 2017, it became very important to her that someone take possession of the family photos, and I took that possession. The problem is, I have no idea who many of the people are.

These are two pages from a beautiful, heavy, fabric covered photo album that I got from Aunt Dot. There are a few pictures where I can name someone, like a picture of my Aunt Nini (really Christina, but we called her Nini) with an unknown baby. I know it is Aunt Nini, because I have a framed picture of her in that same dress with my grandmother, probably taken the same day. But I digress. Most of the album is filled with pictures that have no meaning for me, because I don't know who the people in the pictures are.

My grandmother Sophia and her sister Christina (Aunt Nini) were very important people in my childhood. Aunt Nini lived with us, and Mom Mom lived just around the corner. They loved to reminisce and tell stories about their families and their childhoods. Many of the stories were repeated over and over, and I loved listening to them. I thought I would never forget them, and that I would have time to write them down before Mom Mom and Aunt Nini died.

The stories never got written down. And now I remember fragments, and I know I have made an amalgam of some of the stories. I squandered the opportunity to capture my family history when I had the chance.

Maybe that is why I have created a family in my books who did capture their history. The point is, if you still have a chance to talk to the older generation in your family and capture their stories, do it. If you are now the older generation, write the stories down. Label the pictures so that the names are known. Create a legacy. Time passes much more quickly than you imagine it will.

I will share some of the family stories as I remember them on this blog in the coming days. While my memories may be closer to fiction than fact, at least I will have captured something.

Humans are by nature story tellers. Try to remember that your family stories are important, and capture and share them.