a GET-RID-OF-STUFF spree.
For me, it's always hard to toss things (give them away actually.)
Because, invariably, in just a matter of a short time, I NEED the things back.
And, in nothing was this more apparent than something that happened this week.
It still makes me sick to my stomach.
But, this is much more serious than a given-away purse or a pair of pants or an old vase.
Because you see, this sad story of throwing things away- not giving away- but THROWING away - involves PHOTOS.
Here's how it all played out.
About four or five years ago, when I was really into family history, my aunt gave me some old photos. She knew who some of the people were and we put the names on the back.
The photos meant little or nothing to me as they were taken many years ago and were of people I knew nothing about. I have kept them, looked at them, put them back in the box. And then this spring when I was doing some serious spring cleaning, I took out the folder of pictures. I had no clue who the people were in relation to me.
But, family search had just added a new feature which allowed people to add photos. Oh, it was exciting.
Now, I knew what to do with those old photos gathering dust bunnies.
So, I added them to family search and
TOSSED THEM AWAY!
Today, I received this letter:
Hi Loni, this is Janene Marcum. My, how fun it was to have my sister, Sherell Raymond, call me and say it was you who posted that picture of our Mom, Jessie. She told you that we had never seen that photo, and we all fell in love with it. Mom had such ill health all her life, and here she was looking so young and vibrant. Thank you so much!
And, then she requested the original, which, of course, I no longer have! I am heartsick for Janene and her sister.
How could I have done this stupid, stupid thing!
So, it would seem that I clean out the important and keep the superfluous.
Oh, I am sad tonite at my stupidity and carelessness.
Here is the sad lesson I have learned:
NEVER THROW OUT PHOTOS!
I hope the sad lesson has been learned.
2 comments:
I think we have all been there. Bitter pill to swallow but lesson learned. At least they have the picture to see and enjoy and had you not posted it, they wouldn't even have that so
you did a good thing
Dear Loni,
Have her copy the photo from Family Tree. You can do this as a JPEG file. Then it can be printed off at Costco either as a glossy, or better yet on canvas. If she needs instruction on how to do this, let me know. If you scanned it in at 300 dpi, it will enlarge well. Look at the photo of Orlando Lysander Gee, Lysander's oldest son that I posted on Family Tree. That came from a scanned photo that Adrian Gee sent me. I printed off a 10x12 copy at Costco. I misplaced the original, so I scanned in the 10x12 at 300dpi and now I have another digital copy.
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