This week I was delighted to see a photo of my maternal grandmother in her ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service) uniform from WW2. She had told me stories of being a cook during the war, but I don’t think I had ever seen her in uniform. Another image of my maternal great grandparents came with a note into their personalities, their relationship … it made them come alive.
“Photographs are a bridge to the past. Black and white reminders of the way things used to be. Links to those who are no longer with us. Priceless treasures.” – Jim Starlin, Batman: A Death in the Family
It was a delight to see this (and other) images posted by a relative in Scotland.
Then another friend was musing about her boxes of photos, what to do with them, as so few people want these photos from the past.
I understand what she is saying. As an avid thrift store shopper I have noticed that more and more, photo frames and albums for sale that still have images of their previous owners in them. The dated clothing and faded colors disposable to their previous owner.
“A good photograph never belongs to the past; every time you look at it, it is with you, it is alive and it is in the present moment!” – Mehmet Murat ildan
Yet …
The blood, the history that lead to me is important to me. Maybe it is partly because, with each birthday, I feel my own mortality and it causes me to wonder, will I be remembered by those who come after me? Will the life I have lived matter to those who follow, whose cells share my DNA?
One day, I will cross the big pond to meet these relatives who I have only heard of and I will ask them to introduce me to the heartbeats, the personalities and lifestyles of family I only know through a sparse collection of images.
“Look at the people in the very old photographs! They are gone forever but they still can give us messages with their eyes, they still can touch our hearts with their looks and they still can give us courage with their standing upright!” – Mehmet Murat ildan
itsawonderfilledlife 