On birthday treasures and photo memories

Isn’t it strange how sometimes when you’re looking for a specific object, an entirely different ‘lost treasure’ surfaces? Probably not odd at all. More than likely, what was found by chance was something that was being searched for all along.

That was the case yesterday during a ‘photo hunt’ for pictures that will appear in a story here next week. I found what I was looking for – in a box that contained lots of other photographs taken by my mother more than a few years ago.

Neatly arranged in order by year were old, black and white photos from each of my birthdays, beginning with the all-important #1 date of January 6, 1953, continuing through until I was 10 – enough is enough, my Mom must have thought.

What was important to me was not necessarily looking at the pictures again – I’ve seen them all many times before – but the fact that each photo is labeled in my mother’s perfect penmanship.

Her handwriting was always so lovely – beautiful flowing lines, artistic in many ways. It was wonderful to see that again. She can still write her name, sort of, but the effort it takes is terrible to watch and the frustration it produces for her is heart breaking.

Even now with a mind that’s fading away, Marcella still knows that the word she’s trying to spell looks nothing like what she wants it to – not the graceful signature she used to produce with such ease.

So, it was truly moving for me to find those photos with my Mom’s handwriting, and even more wonderful to take the pictures with me to Hazel Findlay where we shared a brief moment of memory. She remembered the happy little girl in the photos she had taken each year, and shed a tear – of sadness or joy, I do not know.

Being able to spend time with my mother looking at those old photographs was the best birthday present of 2005. A treasured memory – thank you, Mom.