Unpacking

When I was at my mother’s with my siblings, we went through literally thousands of photographs. Some of this was while she was still alive, a fun trip down memory lane, camping in Spain or visits to our boarding schools in England and then many photos of California once she and Dad had moved back. She usually got two sets of prints of every roll of film she took, and she took lots of rolls (she must have culled a lot of my father’s photos a long time ago).

I’m not sure what to do with what I brought back, a tiny sample of photos mostly of her and of me, but it was another exercise in memory, nostalgia, and yes, loss. I am waiting to go through the writing of hers that I brought back, since I did a lot of that while I was still in Maine, recycling or shredding a lot of duplicates or writing by others.

Curation and archiving is an interesting activity, especially when you’re not sure what the purpose is. I will let these things sit a while until I’m more clear (she did ask specifically that I read, and then shred, some of her journal writing).