Sadly, it started a couple of weeks back when Uncle Joe (my husband’s uncle) passed away. Uncle Joe was special to Jack, they shared a birthday, truthfully, he was an exceptional gentleman and we all loved him. We, as a family, were asked to contribute any pictures of Uncle Joe. His granddaughter was creating a pictorial slideshow of memories, for the virtual Rosary service being held. I knew we had some from years past, the question was in which album? In which box?
Jack pulled a couple boxes out. I knew there were other pictures – inside a wall unit, in the hall closet, a box in our daughter’s closet – Oh, and let us not forget the attic. One thing led to another and there were boxes of albums and boxes of boxes, with unorganized pictures from the last 60+ years, way before I was born.
We did find a few great pictures of Uncle Joe so “Mission Accomplished” but now all of this clutter was in front of us. Jack was fabulous. He started to sort and pulled some special ones. 
He put them in piles and then left a slew of them on the table. I think for me to look at – as I started to go through them, I made a bigger mess.
Each time I’d go by- pick up a few and start snapping pictures of them, sending to high school friends, college friends, distant family members. Now not only do I have this mess of pictures on my dining room table, but I have pictures of the pictures on my phone.
To my surprise there was a special find, in a box with several older pictures of my mom and grandmother, from their younger days -a picture frame of sorts, of my great-grandparents 
(Symulevich), from their wedding day, in Lithuania. There was no actual date on it, but my grandmother was born is 1912 and she had an older brother so this would have dated back before 1910. I think it was a wedding favor, as one side was this perfectly preserved picture and the back is a mirror. It is simply lovely.
While coming across this memento was unique, the entire experience was very emotional, a sense of familiarity and comfort. Looking through pictures of family members before I was born. Comparing my daughter and my cousin’s daughter – how they both look like me, me to my mom – if you lined them all up together, you would not be able to tell us apart. Childhood friends, I had long forgotten. Parties, holidays, milestones, and the scenery pictures – way too many scenery pictures. Of course, we rarely wrote dates on them.
Part of me wants to just put them all back in boxes and to do it all again, another time. Would it be so bad to have to relive these feelings? Or should I just suck it up and organize them?
Like many of us during these times, we are looking to organize, purge, clean. Honestly, I would rather just watch Netflix but since my husband is home too, I need to look busy. This was not my project, but it seems I am to decide which way it will go.
I have considered scanning them but honestly, this experience has been wonderful, so far, and I don’t think it would have been the same, if this had been a digital search. I still haven’t decided on the best way to organize them. I ordered a couple of boxes and photoprotection sheets, online to start. 
I took a couple of albums and removed the pictures because the glue dried up. – threw the albums out so that led to about 25 more pictures without a home. It looks like we have several thousand pictures. I do wish, I was sure these pictures, were ALL the pictures – I still think there may be a box or two somewhere in the house. One thing I am going to be sure to do is keep all the stored pictures together – label boxes – 1 of …, 2 of …
Anyway- what has this post really been about? I certainly didn’t come up with some great ways to organize pictures. While I found a great family memento there isn’t a fabulous mysterious story behind it (that I know of). Is there really anything extraordinary about this?
For me YES!!!
It inspired joy, a source of pleasure, to remember, explain, and share memories. I was happy for the disorganized unsystematic, way we had them. Every flip from one picture to the next brought a smile, a surprise. There were also tears – for people lost, pets lost, simpler times, better bodies, better hair. I am glad to have these – physical snapshots of time. It brings a sense of tranquility.
I wonder- if we had them more organized, would the emotions have been so deep. I think we would have found Uncle Joe’s pictures, taken care of the task at hand and that’s it. But life rarely is that neat and maybe our pictures of it, shouldn’t be either.
In a couple weeks we will see if it makes a difference – I will get the stuff I ordered to start organizing “The Pictures of Our Lives”
Maybe not all of them, Maybe some will be left to bring surprise and joy to another day. I’ll let you know how this all works.
Dear Diary, This week a state of clutter brought me bliss – and yes it is EXTRAORDINARY!!
