It was almost our daughter Shannon's high school graduation in 1995. We had decided to have a graduation party for her in the fellowship hall at the church. I'd attended a few graduation parties, so I had some idea what people did. I wanted this to be a special time for Shannon.
Over the years, I've been a big picture taker. In fact, people called me "Camera Kay" because I always had the camera with me. I'd been very diligent writing on the back of each picture and put them right in a photo album almost as soon as I picked up the photos from the store. As you might imagine, I had lots and lots of pictures of Shannon.
I thought it would be nice to go through the pictures and put up a kind of "This Is Your Life" picture collection on several wall dividers in the church for the graduation party. These dividers were huge and stretched across most of one end of the fellowship hall. I would need a lot of pictures, but I knew I had them.
I got the old albums out and started to go through each one. I took small zip lock baggies and organized the pictures. I made sure I wrote the number of the album on the back of each photograph so it wouldn't be a big deal putting them back. I had a baby, school, fun with friends, amusement park, family fun, etc.
The day of the party arrived, and I must say people seemed to enjoy looking at all the pictures. Now the party was over. I took the pictures down and put them in the little baggies with a post-it note in each, saying what they were. I took them home.
Life was pretty hectic during this time, so I neglected to put the pictures back in the albums. Bill had been transferred, our house had sold, so we would be moving in less than a month. Shannon went off to Ohio State that next fall.
I was always doing some kind of busy work using my hands. I like it, but my hands did not. I developed carpal tunnel, so doing any sort of fine motor skill thing was very painful. I thought about the pictures but didn't want to deal with the pain of putting them back in the photo albums.
Life happened again, and now we were moving back to Michigan. I still hadn't put the pictures back in the photo albums. I'd lined the photo albums up in two bookcases, but those pictures of Shannon were still not in them. Not to worry, I thought as I had a real good idea where they were.
We were having our deck refinished. Jeff, one of the guys working on the deck, called and said he would like to bring a friend and do some sanding if I would be home. For some reason, I thought, "Great, I'll just go down and get those pictures and put them in the photo albums!" I thought I knew exactly where they were, so I would be HAPPY to finally get this project accomplish after so many years.
Down to the basement, I went. I could hardly carry the big blue tub holding pictures I hadn't put into photo albums. I was sure I'd find the little zip-lock bags with the graduation party pictures in them. I didn't!
I did find some pictures and sent them to people on the phone and on FB. I was happy I could bring a smile to them, but I'm still looking for the graduation party pictures.
I'm praying to find them, but I believe something good will come out of all this while I'm still looking.
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