Between the Windows: Celebrating a Life

Friday, August 2, 2013

Celebrating a Life

August 2, 1948 October 11, 2007

Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV)

(I have not included photos of our son or myself. I generally do not use full face photos of living people; I have made a few exceptions. I've put the grandkids in this picture album since they have changed so much from these photos and they are not named or tagged. I'm thinking about whether or not I want to attach more photos.)

2010: The sun began to warm my face even before I woke up to see it. It reached across the room to my bed. My bed is a green flex-steel couch that I have been sleeping on since my husband died three years ago. I often lay there thinking before getting up to start my day.

Thinking about the depth of the sun’s reach made me think about the photos I wanted to hang on the walls and where they should go. It was obvious that they should go between the windows, where that reach wouldn’t harm them. The windows would give me a direct view to the current world; the photos between them would give me a direct view to the past.

That’s what I do for enlightenment and enjoyment – sometimes I live in the past.

Genealogy, or family history, began as a study when my son was in the 8^th grade. We were homeschoolers that year and it seemed a good way to study history. It became a passion for me but now has settled down to a frequent activity.

Through my research I have come in touch with people from the past. Often they are people of whom the memory has nearly faded away. That’s the reason I put them between the windows – to keep them from fading away entirely.

This is their story and mine.