Ah, memories. One day when I was working on Stories Grandma Never Told, my mother, Elaine Avina Fagalde, invited her favorite aunt,Edna Freitas Sousa, over to go through the old photo albums that had been hidden in the cedar chest for years. The tiny black and white pictures were taken when my grandmother and the rest of the Sousa/Souza siblings were young, growing up in Santa Clara, California, surrounded by aunts, uncles and cousins.
"Is that...?" "Oh my God, look at Annie." "Is that you?" Mom, Aunt Edna, my Dad (in the background) and I laughed and smiled at the memories. Of course, all of these pictures were taken long before I was born. But for these photo albums and these wonderful Portuguese women at our kitchen table, the memories would have been lost.
My mother passed away in 2002 from cancer. Aunt Edna made it to 100 years old before leaving us in April 2009. Just this morning, I thought of a question to which only my mother would know the answer, but it's too late.
This holiday season,take out the photo albums--yes, the pre-digital pictures--and look through them with your loved ones. Share the memories.
0 comments:
Post a Comment