LESSON LEARNED: Tell the story, the pictures don’t always.

My Dad recently passed away at the age of 85. On my quest to write his obituary I spent two days going through carefully stored pictures and documents from his life. I found his army medals, his medical degree, letters my Mom wrote him when they were dating... a wonderful collection of the places he’d been and seen. The pictures were beautiful – there’s nothing like a black and white photo telling a story while the white border around it holds it in. My Dad was a great man. The pictures I found only reinforced that fact but at the same time proved to me there was a lot I didn’t know. I wish I had asked more questions and I wish he had told more stories. As an organizer and mother of an eight-year-old son, I learned one more of life’s lessons. Take the pictures, but even more important – tell the story. In a world dialed in to digital photography, this is even more important. First, develop the photos. Second, make sure you tell the story on the back of each - name, dates, locations. So one day, when your daughter or son is searching to know even more about their great mother or father, it will be as easy as turning over a picture.