This is a guest post by Amanda Henley of Memory Momentum.
As photo-organizers we have asked this question of ourselves and we ask our clients. Why DO you want to organize your photos? Do you feel guilty? Are you curious to see what’s in those collections? Are you curious to see what stories are there? Are you longing to revisit those memories or a little hesitant because of the emotional value that may be housed there?
Why do YOU want to organize your photos?
For me, I am fascinated by the stories both about the people and the times they lived in. I love watching how a photo can tell a different story to each viewer. As a photo-organizer, I was rather naturally motivated to organize and preserve my own and past generations’ collections, but I didn’t expect to feel what I did when I began to scan my grandmother’s neatly organized album collection.
When I began to scan her albums, I uncovered stories that moved me – that opened up my mind to the hard-working, war-affected laborious world of the first half of the 19th century. I became inspired to write and reflect about my own time and sit down with my own family and talk about what it must have been like for my Grandma and her family in those times.
I felt so deeply and instantly connected to these people I never knew, these people who I see in the faces of several generations later and I was astounded that my cousin’s child could look like my great-great aunt. Really.
And I instantly missed my Grandma.
I thought, why didn’t I open these albums with her when she was in her nursing home and we at times struggled for conversation outside of my own updates? These were her stories we could have visited together so much more.
I cried as I saw the black and white story unfold into coloured photos and realized that my Grandma wasn’t just my Grandma. She was the Grandma for her whole street, too. She had school photos and newspaper clippings of the neighbourhood children who I had later met at her funeral because she, too, was a Grandma in their lives.
In her photos I not only saw my Grandma, now in my adult years as a mom, I saw a fellow mother who lost her husband too young and moved forward with strength and love for her family.
That love continues to reflect back at everyone who opens these albums and sees how much she loved us because our story has been preserved in the pages she created.
It is these pictures and stories that inspire this mom-writer to focus and make memory-keeping a priority because I know the powerful feeling and instilled confidence that can emerge from the love of someone who cares enough to tell MY story.
So maybe this is a little narcissistic. But I realized it’s not just about preserving the loved one’s past stories: it’s about discovering the love someone had for YOU because you were important enough in his or her world to have your story told. And if no one’s told your story, then be important enough to yourself to tell your own story – it can be incredibly emotional, but powerful experience to reflect and create your story through photos.
Yes I know. We are busy. We are distracted. We are overwhelmed.
But you can still do this because it’s important. I made a very simple plan that I could chip away at so that I would be successful, and I made memory-keeping a valued party of my life and schedule.
Because I want my kids to know MY story.
I want them to know THEIR story.
And I have a story to tell.
I want to share that.
We are a people of stories and there are too many good things to note of what comes out of these photo stories, but WOW does it ever feel great to connect to something bigger than ourselves through these shared photos and stories!
I didn’t just revisit my grandmother and her history. My Grandma became a fellow-mom as I flipped through those album pages and I discovered such a deep sense of gratitude that she took the time to preserve her (and our) story.
Be the connector. Keep it simple so you will begin and you will be successful. And if you’re not sure where to start, you can call a photo organizer for guidance on how to get started here.
But do begin.
Kristi Green & Amanda Henley
We grew up together as best friends in a very small town in Ontario, Canada. A close-knit community, small town roots, and endless extended family memories became our foundation from which we have established many of our values. We ventured through our post-secondary years and launched into the next chapter of our lives – one as a teacher in BC, the other as a Registered Nurse in Ontario. In our new worlds we began to lay down our own new roots, but always remained connected. Becoming mothers solidified our passion for organizing, sharing, preserving and telling our family stories and so we opened our business in 2013 specializing in photo-organizing and helping people discover, preserve, and share their photo stories. We love to have fun, we love to be organized, and we love photo-storytelling! You can reach Kristi and Amanda at Memory Momentum.
