For various reasons I have only a few photos from my childhood and young adulthood. I have noted elsewhere that the family is the basic unit for humans and always had been. But not all of us are blessed in that regard.
With six girls and two parents, my immediate family of eight seemed large to me growing up. But we rarely had contact with our cousins, aunts, and uncles.
Over time things fell apart. What looked like a deep bench was an illusion. There were deaths and permanent estrangements. My mother had very little contact with her family of origin. I never met most of them. So perhaps this was inevitable.
I have very little family left and some big holes in my history. And if the current situation with my nephews and surviving nieces holds, there will be no next generation.
So the box of photos from my late sister, Miriam, was a priceless gift.
In the box are my grandparents and my parents. An envelope containing my mother’s “secret” life before she met my father. And all of us sisters when we were young. Even the ones I am now estranged from and their children.
There must be 400 photos. Some may make me cry. But they are all pieces of the puzzle that is my past. Many of these I have never seen. And it is challenging some of my memories, my basic assumptions about my earlier life.
Things were not always as they seemed. This is going to take some time. In the meanwhile, my formerly barren refrigerator is getting covered. I need more magnets.
This was such a big deal personally I had to write a stack. But how many of you are lacking family photos, whether because of a disaster or because there were none? How many lack a family? How many are estranged? I hope you find something to like about this. I still need to be peeled off the ceiling.
I have many photos, especially on my mom side which is the Osage Indian side, some of my dad‘s as well and I know all my grandparents and great grandparents names