Oh, my aching back and knees and bicep! Yesterday was such a pretty day, I knew it was a perfect day to clean the front porch in preparation for winter months. Then I decided to sweep the garage. Which led to clearing a shelf to hold two totes filled with games and paper goods for food gatherings. I have three totes of Christmas items stacked on the floor next to the shelves. Things looked much better, but there were still three totes.
These contained pictures. Lots of pictures. Some generic wall hangings and other pictures in frames of various sorts. In my last home, I had a wall next to the steps that led from the foyer into the upper main floor. This wall collected pictures over the 33 years of living there. Pictures of children, grandchildren, friends, and family members. All these pics were in the totes. So were the pics that my mother brought when she moved in with us.
Time to sort through all these and get rid of the totes. For almost three hours I stood on the concrete floor, breathing in fresh air from the open garage door, and pried the tabs on the back of the pictures to remove the pictures from the frames. All the empty frames I put back in a tote (two totes total) and am taking them to a goodwill store.
But oh, the pictures I found. Treasures! Pictures of my mother as a little girl, my uncle as a little boy, my grandfather in his WWI uniform, lots and lots of history. I sorted the pictures of grandchildren and children and put them in the appropriate labeled picture boxes for them to go through when they feel led. The other pictures I have in a stack to go through, scan and incorporate in the book I’m writing. I even found my baby pictures.
Finding such treasures made my heart smile. How I wish I had known some of these people. Writing stories about them as I discover more, will be inspiring to me. Each day as I uncover more treasures from the past, I become more excited about this process of discovery.
What a wonderful winter this will be as I live and relive the past capturing my memories as I weave the stories together. Lifting my cup of tea with a grateful heart for these treasures God has placed in my hands.
Carol Ann Erhardt, Author 