Remembering My Grandparents

By:Susan in IA, Cedar Falls, IA

I was fortunate enough to live close to all four of my grandparents and to know each of them very well. I was an inquisitive kid- I asked them all kinds of questions about their childhoods, their early years, their parents, etc., and they never seemed to mind answering my repeated questions. I never wrote down all the things they told me and they did not keep scrapbooks. They did have pictures though- lots of pictures!

One of my missions now is to create scrapbook pages about their lives. Scrapbooking what I remember about them has become more important to me as I have gotten older. I wish I had asked my German Grandfather what part of Germany his family came from, what was the name of that beautiful white dog in the picture of him as a young boy, where did he go to school as a boy? Luckily for me, I did ask him how he felt about his strict father, what did he and his brothers (six of them) like to do, how did he meet my Grandmother and lots of other questions that he answered for me. His answers to those questions will be journaled along with the pictures of him that I inherited.

Scrapbooking my memories of each of my four grandparents allows me to share those memories with my children too. My children were born after my grandparents had passed away but I want them to know about their great-grandparents. I want my daughter to see the beautiful antique hand-beaded satin wedding dress hanging in my closet and understand that her great-grandmother, a seamstress, spent hundreds of hours sewing this very special dress for her own wedding.

I would like my children to look at the stern faces of their great grandparents in my scrapbooks and to understand through my journaling that these people were fun loving, hardworking, caring people. They are family. When I scrap these pictures I am sharing my information and love for my grandparents with my children.

Tomorrow at dMarie Daily: How has scrapbooking changed my life!, by Cropmom