One of the things that has kept me from posting for a while was the decline in my grandfather's health due to lung cancer that led to his death on June 19, 2009. I don't think it requires a lot of explanation to be able to imagine the emotional stress and anguish the accompanies watching someone you love die from something so deeply self-inflicted as a lifetime of smoking, so we will just leave it at that. However, the process of a family gathering to celebrate someone's life and then work together to iron out the details of the situation that is left behind has been a new, eye-opening experience.
My part of the process were things as simple as researching the printer my parents needed to buy to be able to print out all the necessary documentation and paperwork, or helping them set up the wireless internet in my grandparents' house so we could all be connected to each other. Before the funeral it was my responsibility to compile all the digital pictures we had, then scan in all the older ones that we wanted to include in a slideshow for the viewing. The undertaking of organizing and preserving my family's history is something that came out of all of this, and I am really looking forward to it. I was only able to do a fraction of the overall work while I was there, and I had to focus on scanning just the ones we needed for the various events. In the end I bought a huge tub at Wal-Mart and brought back every photograph that was not specifically being displayed in a frame or already organized in an album. As I work on it, I will share some of the results here. Like I have said in previous posts, it amazes me how well-documented our family history is when so much of it happened in a time when technology was just not an everyday thing. I am grateful, yet not too surprised, that someone had the foresight to make it happen.
Young Army Papa...so handsome!
Channeling Bear Bryant. The guy in the short shorts behind him is making me lol...
That is Papa and me!
This is just him, how we all knew him and remember him.
OK, so I know I said no more reliving bad stuff, but while the process behind his death was REALLY hard and bad, remembering him and being excited about the possibilities of preserving my family history is something I am looking forward to. I have lots of other distractions up my sleeve, so be ready!
