memories

i have very few memories of my great-grandma Reichard. in fact, in my mind, it's a few tidbits all associated with one visit with her, though i don't really know if they are all actually from the same visit.

i remember visiting her in her assisted living apartment. she had just gotten one of those recliner chairs that can lift you to help you get to a standing position.

we ordered pizza for dinner and she made a joke about how her doctor didn't want her to eat it, but because we were there, she was going to anyway.

she had a rosary on a table next to her TV watching chair. i remember asking her what it was and she explained it to me.

and...unfortunately...that's about all i remember.

but there is something i've never had of her...a picture.

i've only had the memories in my mind...and the visions of her from photos that other family members have displayed in their homes.

the most 'famous' of those is one that was a professional photo, taken with her and my great-grandfather...of whom i have no memory at all (i was extraordinarily young when he died).

and the other day, a most generous gift was bestowed upon me. i know the giver probably has no idea how much i appreciate her thinking of me as the new owner of this picture.

to have an actual photo now, to go with my memories...it's priceless to me.

as a scrapbooker, i record my memories through photos...and it is the hope that the photos and written memories together bring out that prism of our lives - once presented to me by the ever-impressive Stacy Julian - our memories alone are white light...but combine those memories with photos and meaningful words about them...and it becomes a prism. the true beauty that is our lives...whether you're scrapbooking a new baby, or just the contents of your refrigerator...or the limited memories of a great-grandmother that might otherwise go unrecorded...without the image that goes with it.

thank you, aunt elyce, for passing along this picture to me.
it means more to me that you will ever know.