September 6, 2013

• Lost & Found & Lost

  We are beginning the process of cleaning out our attic. The plan is for Brett to bring down a few boxes at a time and I will sort through them, repacking the stuff I want to keep, setting aside stuff for the church rummage sale, and tossing the trash. Our attic has a history of wasps, bats and flying squirrels. I've also seen at least one dead spider in the first batch of boxes I sorted yesterday. There are scary things in the bottoms of the boxes from the attic!

  I'm not sure if every bunch of boxes is going to be the same, but the first one was an emotional roller coaster. The first thing I picked up was a plastic bag. When I looked inside it, I found some photo envelopes. I grabbed the envelope on top and opened it; inside were two plastic folders filled with photographs. I pulled out the folder on top, opened it, and was figuratively punched in the gut by the first photo. I'm glad I was sitting down.

  

  It was my dad and the photo was from the road trip Krysten and I took with my parents to California in 1996. The photo was from our memorable stop for a picnic at a state park in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, one of the most beautiful places in this country. That photo made me gasp and tears sprang to my eyes. The next photo made me laugh.

  

  It was Mom in her flowery straw hat, being attacked by tiny hummingbirds. She thought they were big bees or wasps. The hummingbirds were attracted by the Diet Coke she's holding and confused by the brightly colored silk flowers on her hat. You can see that she had dropped her cane, but was holding tight to her Diet Coke. We do not neglect the priorities in my family!

  I found three or four envelopes of photos from that trip, including these taken in Kansas where we stopped to see family.

  

  My cousin Lynda, Aunt Pat and Dad. Aunt Pat and Dad are both gone now.

  

  Krysten and Uncle Lou. They immediately became fast friends; not an easy accomplishment with Uncle Lou. He is gone now.

  

  My grandmother. I'm going to take a wild guess that the flash on my camera had stopped working. Grandma was gone a couple of years after this photo was taken.

  

  This one made me smile. It's Krysten standing on the sidewalk in front of Grandma's house watching a train go by at the rail crossing up the street. I remember visiting Grandma when I was younger than Krysten in this photo, and getting excited when the crossing bells started clanging and the barricades came down. I'd run out the door and down the sidewalk to watch the trains go by. It made my heart happy to see my daughter do the same thing. Grandma's house on Market Street is still there, but it is now making memories for another family.

  I've looked for these pictures a few times over the years. They've been lost for many years, but now they've been found again. So many of the people I loved in these photos are lost now, though; Grandma, Aunt Pat, Uncle Lou and Dad. Mom is still here in body, but Alzheimer's Disease is causing her to slowly slip away from reality. Krysten, of course, is still with me, but she's a grown woman now, living her own life, making her own memories.

  What was lost is found, what is found has been lost. I am thankful for the photographs that stir my memories of this lost moment in time.

  • 1:45 pm
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