My mother and uncle arrived safely in the UK yesterday and hoped to see my great aunt this evening. Aunt Peg is our oldest living relative, the last of my grandmother's generation, the youngest child of our Nana, in whose honour the family holds a gathering every year in the south of England. I have learned a lot about this family through my genealogical sleuthing over the past few months, but no amount of data will replace knowing the people, seeing them smile, feeling their hugs as they greet you.
But pictures certainly help. Mom and I spent last weekend packaging her mountain of family pictures safely for storage, as her basement is about to be torn apart. We organized over 6000 photos and countless negatives -- a filing job I rather enjoyed! I thought how fortunate we are to have preserved all these, unlike many, many people in Louisiana, who have lost not just the sweet memorabilia of their lives, but their entire homes and even their loved ones.