Mom = memory-keeper

 

A few months ago, when we were going through the boxes in the basement, I found a couple of boxes just filled with papers and drawings done by my kids in the early years of grade school. Given that those "kids" are now in their 40s, it seemed time to let them go. I spent a few happy hours going through them; it was interesting to see early echoes of the people my kids grew up to be in those drawings and work sheets. I tossed the vast majority, but a few were just too precious to let go! So what to do with these random pieces of paper? I scanned them and threw away the originals!  I also found a complete set of class pictures through about 6th grade-the ones with thumbnail picture of each class member, plus the teacher and sometimes the principal. I scanned those too, and let the originals go.  

Do you remember the packets of school photos we used to buy?  If you wanted two 8x10s, for example, you might have to buy more than one set. Pictures were purchased sight unseen and paid for up front.  Sometimes the picture was so bad, I didn't send them to relatives at all. We send the kids to school on picture day looking cute and tidy but we have no control over what they look like by the time their turn comes in front of the camera! Good or bad, all those school pictures now live in my Forever® account. That way, I can pull them up at a moment's notice if I want to share a particularly humiliating picture! 

The family memory-keeper is usually Mom. How many of you have handmade scrapbooks of family life and growing children? They take up so much room and weigh a ton.  When do we ever bring them out? My daughter spent many hours making yearly scrapbooks of her children. The problem is, there is one scrapbook per year and three children. She has recently undertaken to get all those scrapbooks scanned so that, in the unlikely event that they will fight over who gets to keep the scrapbooks, she can make printed copies for each one. 

Forever® is a platform for storing your precious memories in a permanent, private cloud account. They will digitize everything from 12x12 scrapbook pages (the standard size) to VHS tapes, slides and 8mm home movies. Then you can store and share the pictures and movies with the family. There is even a provision for designating who gets access to your account after you pass away!  (In my case, that's definitely my daughter.) It's a way to "save the memories, not the mess"; everyone can access the pictures and videos but no one has to store the boxes!

So this Mother's Day, instead of plants and chocolates, why not give Mom the gift of permanent storage for all those memories! It's a gift that will last a long, long time and, who knows, it may end up being a gift to yourself when Mom is no longer with you!

Click the link to know more about saving your memories with Forever.