Kind of ironic.
I have several photo albums. Most have photos that I've taken, and there are a sprinkling of photos others have given me over the years, including ones from my childhood that my mom has passed on. (Not nearly as many as there were, but that's a story perhaps for another time). Early on in our relationship, I realized that Jimmy had none. He said at one point his sister had inheirited all the family photos, and he doubted he'd ever see any of them again. Eventually he managed to find one picture of himself from before we met, and it was from his early days in the Navy. Kind of a profile shot where he was in a group and wasn't really looking at the camera. (Still handsome, though!)
Fast forward a couple of years, when I got to meet his sister, Alethia, and had a chance to ask her about their old family albums. Yes, it turned out he was right, she said she'd had them, but had lost track of them several years ago. I was very sad, figuring I'd never see any pictures of his childhood. I have friends who have lost all their family photos, and it always makes me sad to think about.
Well, a couple of months back, he happened to mention this to his mom. And she said, "Oh, Alethia sent the pictures back to me years ago. I have them." And she said she'd send them to us. And yesterday, they finally arrived. Wow! I got to see his graduation photo, his boot camp photo, and many, many pictures of wee little Jimmy. I literally teared up looking at them.
It also made me realize something else: in the chaos that has ensued, and the damage that has been wrought, in my mother's obsessive acquisition of things beyond what she can manage, I doubt the family photos from my childhood have survived. So, now we have some of Jimmy's family photos here, and as it turns out, I am the one whose childhood family photos have been lost.
Fast forward a couple of years, when I got to meet his sister, Alethia, and had a chance to ask her about their old family albums. Yes, it turned out he was right, she said she'd had them, but had lost track of them several years ago. I was very sad, figuring I'd never see any pictures of his childhood. I have friends who have lost all their family photos, and it always makes me sad to think about.
Well, a couple of months back, he happened to mention this to his mom. And she said, "Oh, Alethia sent the pictures back to me years ago. I have them." And she said she'd send them to us. And yesterday, they finally arrived. Wow! I got to see his graduation photo, his boot camp photo, and many, many pictures of wee little Jimmy. I literally teared up looking at them.
It also made me realize something else: in the chaos that has ensued, and the damage that has been wrought, in my mother's obsessive acquisition of things beyond what she can manage, I doubt the family photos from my childhood have survived. So, now we have some of Jimmy's family photos here, and as it turns out, I am the one whose childhood family photos have been lost.