A Lifetime Of Memories

By:Becky Thompson, Ontario, Oregon

I have been keeping scrapbooks since I was a child. For me, remembering the events of my life and the lives of my family members has been something that was always very important to me. But up until just recently, I didn't realize what a legacy scrapbooking really is.

I started scrapbooking 8 years ago. At that time, my husband was a long haul truck driver and I was left alone with two small children, both under two. I was lonely and missed the companionship of my husband. I also wanted to be sure that my husband didn't miss out on the growing up the kids did while he was gone.

Also about that time I had just lost my grandfather to lung cancer. He was one of my rocks as a child, and I missed being with him terribly. Why hadn't I written down those stories told while I was sitting on his lap? Why hadn't someone taken all those pictures and recorded those faces before they were lost in the mist of time? I had no answer.

Unfortunately, things did not work out for me to have my grandfather's pictures made into a scrapbook....but I was determined not to let those memories be lost. That's when I started scrapbooking, and that's when I noticed how it began to change my life, and the lives of those I loved most.

My first effort to document the life of someone who was no longer with us came about 3 years ago. My husband's grandmother had just passed away. A few weeks after the funeral, I was approached by my father in law. He wondered if I would have the time to take the boxes of pictures his mother and father had collected over the years and put them in a book. I was so honored and humbled.

Scrapbooking those pictures has given me so much more than just a lasting record. It's given me a living relationship with my father-in-law. I got to sit and listen as he told those stories he had heard about those gone before. I learned about my husband's family much in the same way I learned about the legacy of my own...at the side of someone who went before.

When I presented the book to my in-laws, there were tears all around. No, it wasn't because of the page decorations. It wasn't because of the titles...the paper...none of those things. It was because the memories had not been lost. The life had not been forgotten.

To me, that's what scrapbooking is all about...and that's what it means to me. Record the lifetime of memories. Before it's too late.



Tomorrow at dMarie Daily: dMarie Frienships, by Nordy SLC, UT