Wandering Down Memory Lane

I was just looking for a file in My Documents and in the process, I came across an old, old photo -taken over 60 years ago -of some members of my extended family.

And boy, the memories it brought to my mind!

This great photo was of my Grandfather's older brother -my great-uncle Eric -and his family and was taken out on the front lawn of his home, which is about six houses down the street from my house.

I spent many, many hours of my childhood and teenage years -and up through the 80s for that matter -at his home and with these people in this photo.

My Great-uncle passed away in the spring of 1956 -a year before my beloved Grandpa died. That's Uncle Eric standing in the front row, holding his hat in his hands.

I can identify all on this photo except for two men in the back row that for some reason or other, I can't tell now who they are.

But seeing all these smiling faces once again, and remembering too all the good memories I have of them and that house, it also reminds me that my children were blessed too in that they got to know and love three of Uncle Eric's daughters very, very well, as Edith, Helen and Hedvig resided in that house until the late 1980s at which time, they all three moved into an assisted living place in nearby Philipsburg, as maintaining the house had become too much for them to do.

I know, all too well, how much Uncle Eric's granddaughters hated to go through all the possessions there and either sell or give away many of those treasured items. How they were pained greatly then too when the time came to put the house itself up for sale as well.

But thankfully, they -and I -have these wonderful, beautiful memories of the people who once lived there and treasure deeply just how much each and everyone of them meant to us.

Doesn't keep a person from missing them, for sure -even after six decades have gone by -but it does make one value those we know and love today because someday none of us will be here to remember them.