It's in the cards

It makes me sad that there are pictures my sister, Mim, wanted us to have that we might not see.  She was going through them on the Friday of our visit, but we had to head out because of a grannie client commitment.  The friend who has her power of attorney hasn't returned phone calls, so the family photos Mim treasured so dearly might be gone for good.  Hopefully, not.

Because of them, I've been thinking A LOT about photographs & their importance.  About the ones Mim loved that we might not see again, of the indescribable photo album she made for Girls Day 1960 with pictures of her sibs, each captioned with a poem, carefully written in Mim's high school handwriting - the album she gave me last Christmas.  About the album of my Grandmother Lockhart's family having a grand time - but no captions, no sense of who's who.  About all the photos in this place & that around our house, just as woefully uncaptioned & not organized into albums.

And it got me thinking about the power & importance of photographs for my older friends, especially those dealing with memory challenges.  I can't overstate how powerful photos can be in helping us hold onto memories, in giving us a sense of place.  

Inspired by thoughts of the photos we might never see & to honor the precious ones we have, am putting together games people can play that pull in family photos & precious memories.  As simple as photocopying pictures in pairs at a local CopyMax or Staples, cutting them uniform size, then using them in a "match the card" game.  Or develop a card games using smaller versions.  Mix in memories.  When someone sets aside a matched pair they have to identify who's who & where or give more background on the memory.  Make an advent calendar, where the date turns over to reveal a family photo or a Christmas memory.  

By using these sorts of games with our families - all ages playing & adding their own cards to the mix - everyone gets to hear the stories & if anyone having memory challenges gets positive reinforcement of their life.

Wishing Mim was here to help me figure out brainstorm ideas, break concepts into steps & instructions, toss around packaging ideas & marketing approaches - she was a whiz at that sort of challenge!  

We might get Mim's pictures, we might not.  But every time I work on my memory games, every time I look at someone's family photos, she'll be in my thoughts & heart.