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When I realized my favorite aunt would not recover from her two year battle with cancer,
I decided to put together a collaborative family album for her.
I sent a letter to forty-five family members asking them to send a few pictures...including a baby picture
and a recent picture. I also sent a questionnaire so I would be able to include each person's full name, nickname,
birthplace and date and "favorites". I asked for a short letter describing a special memory.
I heard from almost everyone...but when my cousin called and said it would be "any day now" I decided to send
the album with a few pages that weren't quite complete.
I took me several hours each evening for about six weeks to put her album together. It was so much fun to check the mail
and have another bundle of photos of relatives...some who I have never met...to sort through, laugh and cry over...by the time
I finished the album I felt much closer to my family.
Aunt Tip lived for about a month after she received the album. I knew, without a doubt, that all that hard work was worth it
when she called to tell me, "Its the purdiest thing I've ever had."
On the inside cover of her album I put a recent picture taken not long after Aunt Tip had brain surgery. On the title page
Tip is about ten years old. I love the two pictures together...the gentle way her hand holds a flower in each.
When you click to enlarge you can see the words from Amy Grant's song "Heirloom": "My precious family is more than an heirloom to me."
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