CaringBridge

I thought I had lost it... That one photo... In the days prior to my mom's death almost a year ago, as I sat in the hospital holding her hand, I snapped a photo that is now absolutely priceless to me. It was not of my hand, but of my daughter Erin's hand as she held on to my mom... her grandmother. We took one look at the photo at the time and then closed it up. For a long time. A very long time.  It was just too hard to look at and would bring instant tears to our eyes as it represented a special bond between the two. But yesterday was February 5. Just one month away from that heart wrenching day last March. So I started to look for that photo. To my horror, it was not on my camera that I always carry in my purse. I had recently cleaned up some of the memory cards in my cameras. NO. PLEASE! I could NOT have deleted it accidentally! I KNOW I checked that all photos had been saved first! I stared at the words, No Image staring back at me on the screen. I scrambled for my other camera. I know I did not have that one at the hospital with me, but just in case - could it be there? Nothing. Had I uploaded it to my computer and it was mixed into a different category? I scrolled and scrolled through the photos. When you have over 19 thousand (yes, you read that right) photos in iPhoto, this is no small task. Nothing. Other computers. Nada. My backup hard drive. Not there either. My old backup hard drive. Uh uh. I searched through all my sent emails. Had I sent a copy of the photo to Erin? To anyone? Sort by date. No match. Panic and tears were beginning to set in. I went to bed totally distraught. "Please Lord," I prayed... "Let it be SOMEWHERE..." 

The next day, I called Erin. Do you have a copy? Didn't you take the same photo with your camera? No. You have the only one. It was on your phone. Oh no! I had replaced my phone since then too. My old one had been sitting in a drawer until recently, when Roger dropped his phone into water and used mine to replace his...after resetting it to the original factory settings. Everything wiped clean. My heart sank. I asked him for the phone. How do you pull up photos on this? I couldn't even remember. To my amazement, an old photo popped up on the screen. I started scrolling and there is was! The one I was looking for! I was practically in tears! It seems I had put a memory card in that phone when I first got it and changed the settings to save photos not to the phone's memory, but to the memory card instead!  THANK YOU, LORD!! For answered prayers. For my fastidious personality that causes me to read instruction manuals and learn to use electronics. And all their settings. For my instinct to grab a camera to capture a memory that I want to hold on to forever... (at least 19,260 times apparently!) For watching my back... THANK YOU! For making me who I am. And for each. and. every. step. that. has. brought. me. to. where. I. am. 

A year passes by and an anniversary approaches. March 5, what a day. 29 years of marriage for Roger and me. 1 year for Sarah and Greg. :) And the day I lost my mom, though her body did not actually agree until 5 days later... 

THANK YOU, LORD, FOR THE GENERATIONS... AND THE HANDS WE HOLD ON TO THAT LINK US THROUGH THE AGES. 

Pull out your camera and capture those details, a tiny newborn in the hands of his father and grandfather (hint hint Lisa!)... those precious moments, the memories we want to capture forever.  The smooth skin of youth... the promise of a future. The wrinkles of the aged... wisdom to be passed along. The hand of my mother... and my children who will continue her legacy... I love you all. I cannot say it enough.

Forever grateful,

Martha