My Grandmother's gift

By:Carol T.

As I was growing up, I was always amused by my grandmother's frustration when people sent her pictures with no names or dates on them. I thought it must be part of getting old -- after all, she only had 13 grandchildren to keep up with -- it can't be THAT hard to figure out who the little red-headed girl is in the picture!! Whenever unlabled pictures came, Grandmother sighed, and got out her pictures and tried to match up faces with names, and then she labeled her pictures.

When the great-grands came along, including 3 sets of twins, labeling those pictures became even more important! We all learned over the years to NEVER send grandmother a picture of a child without writing the name, relationship, and date on the back of the picture.

As Grandmother got older, she began distributing pictures to all her children. We learned then that she had kept albums of pictures for all 6 of her children. There are precious few baby pictures, but there are growing-up pictures, school pictures, military pictures, wedding pictures, and pictures of her childrens children and grandchildren. All sorted and labeled -- name, dates, relationships, and sometimes even a story or two.

Grandmother passed away at the age of 92. While my children never got to know their great-grandmother, they do have the legacy she left behind. As I scrapbook those old pictures, not only do I thank my grandmother for keeping all these wonderful pictures for me, all nicely labeled and organized, but I also feel a deep connection to her. Obviously, we shared more than just a common genetic background. She was a scrapbooker, even if she called it just keeping her picture box in order. Scrapbooking gives me the chance to connect to my grandmother in a very personal way. It lets me connect to her husband, who died when my dad was 10. It lets me connect to her mother, who died when Grandmother was just a young girl. It lets me connect to her stern grandparents, who raised her after her mother died. Through all of these connections, scrapbooking helps me understand my grandmother, my father, and myself. I hope that it will help my children and grandchildren do the same.

Tomorrow at dMarie Daily: Dmarie is a great website for all types of scrappers, by Scott M