Everything Old Becomes New Again

As I sat sorting through mounds of papers at my Great Aunt Nina's house with my friend Pam and my Great Aunts trusty sidekick Anna I kept stumbling across random gems. Not the sparkling kind, but the memory kind. Pictures and papers that have opened up my memory bank to the past. Within these memories I have had the chance to walk down memory lane once again.

When I was sorting through box after box of my Mom's belongings there were constant triggers of memory that would take me back to my childhood. All the good memories and all of the bad would flood into my brain. With my Great Aunts photos and papers I feel differently. I am more relaxed, just enjoying looking back at my families memories. Photos of my Grandma when she was 7 years old with her brother and other sister years before my Great Aunt Nina(my Grandma's sister) was even born and pictures of my Great Aunt posing in various outfits with the description of the event the outfit was worn and the date 1944.

I find myself scrambling through my brain trying to remember my Great Aunts stories so that I can store them away to share with the pictures. Everything that I once considered old is new again and more valuable than it once was. I have decided to start sharing these stories with my girls and giving them some of these photos to keep the generations of family history alive. By doing this our girls will know why they are who they are, a blend of two families, (mine and Mark's) with only the best of each of us twirling around inside of our children. They are living examples of how genetics and history repeat and make individuals who are unique yet the same.

While pouring through someone else's spent life is sad, I am grateful for the opportunity to be the keeper of my Aunts gate. This will always be the greatest gift she could have given me, the opportunity to be part of her life and her death. She watched me grow up, she helped me when I needed help and she listened and counseled when she could. Now it is my turn to repay her by sorting through each thing and keeping her life alive and special. These are old pictures with new people to hear the stories, a true gift of the heart.