Grandpa’s Christmas gift is a very, personal book. It contains 100 of my favorite photographs of him interacting with various grandchildren, as seen through my eyes. He is an involved Grandpa and is always teaching something although the children don’t always recognize his words and efforts as lessons. Here are a few pages:
Choosing the photographs for his book was a difficult task. I have taken hundreds of photographs of my family over many, many years. I settled on those which I thought most expressed Grandpa’s interest in his family and his love of children. I was true to my photography goal which continues to be to take photographs which tell a story.
I have learned to sneak around and take photographs from a distance. My goal is to create a record for my posterity which shows the everyday interactions of people who love and care about each other. Nothing is more touching to me than the time that Grandpa takes to do simple things for others.
Some of the words with each photograph are mine and some are the words of poets and philosophers. I am grateful every day for the blessing of nice cameras and the desire to help my family remember their lives and relationships. This year I plan to get more photographs out of the computer and into books which can be viewed easily by those who are in the photographs.
Generations before us used to have photo albums on coffee tables. The number of photographs was more limited but the joy of seeing familiar faces was the same.
Since this little princess is now a teenager, I hope that she will have a great appreciation for the love her grandfather has for her as she sees images she has long forgotten.
You must not be too close or the slightest bit noisy
if you want to get photo memories like this one.
I never use a flash for photographs like these.
Not only is this the wall of the little clubhouse which Grandpa built with the help of his grandchildren, he is building a rack for the handmade rubber-band guns he and Holden have just finished building.
Will this little grandson ever forget his grandfather?
People usually say two things about photographs:
I remember this. Or, I don’t remember this.
Either way it is important to have them.
So much family fun surrounds our garden. Little cousins and siblings dig and carry and love to help. It would be easier for Grandpa to just dig up the potatoes and bag them for winter. Grandpa knows there is no fun in that and that special lessons are lost about service and nature.
The finished book contains 100 photographs. They span many years, activities and all contain one or more of sixteen grandchildren. They are Family History. They cement Grandpa and his acts of kindness into history and expand the memory of our family.
He reminds me that I wouldn’t have these photographs unless I was with him enjoying the same things and the same little people.
True. Very true. How nice.
-Grandma-