a box full of memories

Over the last few weeks I have been slowly sifting through albums and boxes full of dirty old loose photos. These are all old Andrew family photos. it started out as a desire to create a storybook about John's Uncle Joe and his family who died in a plane crash in December of 1972 but their family pictures are scattered throughout many different albums in small quantities and odd locations. Since it was so difficult to figure out who was who and where they belonged I chose to scan all the photos I came across and so even with my wonderful Kodak scanner this has been quite an undertaking. It's been an emotional journey. Completely unique in my personal experience. I looked at these beautiful pictures, some of which date to the turn of the century, and feel curious as to who I'm looking at. What life they lived. I guess this is the spirit of Elijah, turning the 'hearts of the children to their fathers'. I am saddned, though, because many of these pictures haven't had any captions or information such as dates or names attached to them, and John and JoAnne (John's parent's) aren't able to identify them. We're the end of the line here. If we don't identify as much as we can, when John and JoAnne go there will be no one left to identify these people. It's also heartbreaking looking at the photos of John's Uncle Joe, Aunt Roseanna, cousins JoJo, Karen and Timothy and seeing their lives just, stop.... they only got so old, there is nothing else. I feel peace in knowing that life continues after death and that there is a God in Heaven who loves us, but it still hurts the heart to see those young, innocent faces.


JoJo & J.R.


John, JR (my John), Uncle Joe & JoJo (Joseph Jr.)