[jrebel7]

HEY jreb After reading your e mail and then answering you i have been remembering the happy memories i had when i was a little girl most of them was memories of my dad , my mom and i were never the best of friends which was a shame ,i loved her never the less. I foster children on respite for all the foster carers in our region and it makes me realise how lucky you and i are to have memorabilia of our parents to hand down to younger members of our family Almost all of the children we have come to us have nothing to remember their mommies or daddies , some may have a photo or a postcard its up to us to try and collect a memory box for them which i try sooo hard to do . sometimes i feel a sense of guilt that i have my memories, brings a tear to my eye

Bless your heart Loobiloo! You have a perspective that I do not have because of your special work. I understand why you might feel a sense of guilt but it is as you know, false guilt. I hope joy replaces that feeling of guilt always as you realize the magnitude of what you are doing for these little ones. What a blessing you are to these children. What you shared will make me even more appreciative than I have been to have such treasures! Blessings to you as you enjoy every moment of sweet memories and as you share those with those around you! :)

My brother-in-law's sister took all the family photos when his folks died. He only had one photo of his parents and that was one the my mother cut out of their church directiory and sent to him years ago. Before Christmas this past year, I contacted his cousin, that cousin contacted an aunt, I scanned a bunch of photos of his parents, himself and his cousins and aunt and uncles (he had none of himself except since he married my sister) and I had prints made, bought a nice photo album, put the prints in the album then burned a CD of the photos which had the names and places of photos on each photo and printed out a CD cover. He came into town, they live 11 hours away from us, and gave him his gift. He carried that album around with him everywhere he went while they were here, showed some of his cousins, etc. Just seemed to really mean so much to him. He would tell me about each photo, several times and I was thrilled to listen. Blessings to you as you continue to find joy as you share your special treasures with your children. (Adult though they may be, they/we all have the little child still in us). Please keep us posted as you find special items and make plans for sharing them at Christmas.

[loobiloo]

Oh what a lovely story with a lovely happy ending .what a wonderful person you are .When my mom was 80yrs old I organised a big party for her .she had no photographs of my dad at all she was never a sentimental person .ai BOUGHT THE BIGGEST ALBUM I COULD FIND.it took me 10 months to put together with the help of my boys we collected photographs from all the family .We went all round the country for them .I got photos of my moms sisters and brothers and their children and grandchildren . Then I set to work .I started with my moms great grandparent and put their photographs on the first page .I wrote their names at the top I then added their children on the same page . Then I made a page of my moms grandparents and their children which was my mom and her brothers .Hope you get the idea .When I reached the page of my moms youngest brother who's name was jack I had been given his last school report when he was 12 .Sadly he got killed on his bike by a lorry .I included this report in the album . I made a page or two of everyone in my moms family .At the end I put photos of my moms dearest friends .At the party I presented my mom with this album .she cried buckets of tears .Everyone wanted to look . My mom died last year and the album is now with me . Sometimes I get it out when my grandchildren are here and the love looking at all the old black and white photos .And I love to answer their questions about the people they have never seen .bless

[jrebel7]

oh what a lovely story with a lovely happy ending .what a wonderful person you are .When my mom was 80yrs old i organised a big party for her .she had no photographs of my dad at all she was never a sentimental person .ai BOUGHT THE BIGGEST ALBUM I COULD FIND.it took me 10 months to put together with the help of my boys we collected photographs from all the family .We went all round the country for them .I got photos of my moms sisters and brothers and their children and grandchildren . Then i set to work .I started with my moms great grandparent and put their photographs on the first page .I wrote their names at the top I then added their children on the same page . then i made a page of my moms grandparents and their children which was my mom and her brothers .Hope you get the idea .When i reached the page of my moms youngest brother whos name was jack i had been given his last school report when he was 12 .Sadly he got killed on his bike by a lorry .I included this report in the album . I made a page or two of everyone in my moms family .At the end i put photos of my moms dearest friends .At the party i presented my mom with this album .she cried buckets of tears .Everyone wanted to look . my mom died last year and the album is now with me . Sometimes i get it out when my grandchildren are here and the love looking at all the old black and white photos .And i love to answer their questions about the people they have never seen .bless

Oh my goodness, what an undertaking! I know that gives you joy knowing you made her so happy.

We sure sound like soul sisters! :p

I made a photo album for my parent's 60th wedding anniversary. I had printed out stationary sheets that said, "My favoirte memories are.................." Then had everyone there to write memories of their time with mother and daddy, had self-addressed stamped envelopes for those who wanted to take them home and send them back. Mother had dementia to a degree at this time. Her uncle who was 105 at the time came from another state for the event. He and his wife. He was a retired minister and had married mother and daddy. He passed in his sleep on Easter Sunday morning at the age of 108! Amazing!

Anyway, I put the announcement of the party, the sheets that were sent in, then photos with captions under each... a lot of fun. Like you, I know have the album and it is a treasure to me. Silly me, although I have photos of my great uncle, my mother, myself, my son, my grandson, we did not think to get a five generation family photo. Sad about that but it was a busy day but a happy day! Daddy talked about it often about how much work we girls had put into the party (myself, my sister, my sis-n-law) and how much it meant to them. I made a large long banner saying "Happy Anniversary"! Well, you know, everyone just did so many nice things for the folks.

I am sad that your mother's brother was killed. I know you gave all your family lots of good memories from the book. Ten months is a long time to work on a project. You are indeed a dedicated individual. :)