Scrapbook Chicago: Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be .JPGs

My mother is having open heart surgery this Friday. It's been a bit of an unexpected shock to the family, and while her chances are quite good, inevitably we've all been going through the anxiety and planning that everyone goes through when facing major surgery. The "if I die..." scenarios. "here's my insurance papers, here's all this important stuff, here's where I think your father will be lost, this is what the will says, I want a DNR," that sort of thing. Dealing with the unpleasant reality that your parents are, in fact, mortal, and that a day will come when they are no longer in your life.

My beautiful Momma in high school.

My son joined Cub Scouts this year, and last night was their first Den meeting. The activity was 'make a family scrapbook'. Right up my alley! Since it was an activity being undertaken by a bunch of six year olds, we didn't get too fancy; the scrapbooks are binders filled with 8.5"X11" white paper sheets in page protectors. But each kid got to decorate the pages and the cover of their book, and one of the den leaders even took pictures of each kid (as well as one of the whole group) and printed them out right there so the kids could put a couple pictures in to start. It was a really nice activity.

A lot of my paper scrapbooking supplies are packed away in my basement right now (I'm chronically disorganized over here!), so I went over to my mom's to raid the kids' art box for supplies. She has a big rubbermaid bin that she fills with paper and sticker scraps for my kids to craft with when they're at her house.

My mom is the consummate crafter. She's been through myriad crafting phases in her life, from sewing to stamping to scrapbooking, and has always collected a TON of supplies along the way. The past several years have seen the two of us doing a lot more collecting of supplies than actual crafting. Especially with scrapbooking, it's really easy to get sucked in by all the adorable papers and delightful stickers and clever punches and cutters and gadgets.

Mom is much more organized than I am. Most of her papers and stickers, and even many of her photographs (even from decades ago), are organized by categories and projects. I asked to borrow some of her Fiskars so the kids could cut fun shapes out, and she started pulling out bins of papers and stickers to see what else she could send with me for the kids to play with. As she was rooting through the various groupings of papers and stickers, she was mumbling things like 'no, not these, I was saving these for your brother's football album... I need to have two of each of these for your and your brother's school albums... this was going to be for your school dances... I need these for your and your brother's halloween pictures... ' and so on.

Me and my brother.

It struck me, listening to her and watching this process, that these memories are being lost every day. My brother is almost 28. I am 32. It's been a long time since either of us was in high school, going to dances or playing football. It's been even longer since we were kids dressing up for Halloween (well, we still all dress up, but you know what I mean!). I'm sure that details of these events have faded in her mind as the years have gone by; I know that details have faded from MINE, and in some cases I don't even remember. I look through her boxes of old pictures sometimes and I can't figure out what year it is, or who those friends were, or what the occasion was; in some of the baby pictures I can't even tell my brother and I apart. In some of the baby pictures, my MOM can't even tell my brother and I apart!

She has been collecting these supplies for YEARS, and while some books and pages have been finished over that time, for the most part, her crafting room(s) are simply full of good intentions. I'm not criticizing my mom; my crafting rooms are even less organized than hers, and are full of an equal number of good intentions. My children are 4 and 6, and I haven't done their books yet. I've done ONE for my son, and that's it.

I'm sure many of you can relate to this. The shoeboxes full of pictures. The supplies tucked away in the corners. The "oh, I SHOULD get to that one of these days" thoughts; but one day keeps getting further away. Some day, 'one day' might never happen. My mother's upcoming surgery obviously has me much more sensitive to the thought that these memories might be permanently lost in the near future. But the reality of life is, none of us know how much time we have, or what disasters or diseases might come along and rob of us of our precious heritage.