It’s Too Late

I have been working on my family tree for over a decade now. I have always wanted to scan our family photos so that I have digital copies for archiving and sharing. However, my Mom would not let her precious photos out of her sight. If I did take a few, I had to return them promptly the next day or receive a reminder phone call every 12 hours until they were back in her loving care. These were obviously her most prized possessions and she guarded them intensely. She disdained technology and was loathe to share any private information with the world. She always promised to make copies for me, but never found the time to do so.

My Mom passed away last year. Recently, I was helping my Dad clean up the basement and found the old photo albums. “Can I borrow these for a few days? I promise I will bring them right back.” “Keep ’em,” was my Dad’s reply. He is not a pack rat like my mother and he saw no reason for them to sit neglected in the dark basement.

So I have been scanning, archiving and yes, sharing the old photos. Some have writing on the back so I know when they were taken and who the people in the photos are. The majority give me no clue as to why they were so precious to my mom, and their meaning is lost for all time.

To quote the Carole King song, “It’s too late baby, now it’s too late.”

Missing Mom

My mom passed away 10 weeks ago. This is the first time I can write or think that without breaking down. She was diagnosed with stage 2 ovarian cancer in August 2011. She bravely went through an extremely tough round of chemo and it looked like she had bought herself some time. But the doctor’s prognosis of the cancer recurring in 4 -5 years were wrong. I know ovarian cancer is incurable. I know she was 82 years old. But with so many advances in medicine, how did she only get 21 months? And the last 6 were spent going from doctor to doctor, from specialist to specialist, from test to test? I feel cosmically ripped off and I don’t know if I can get over that. Cancer sucks!