This is a vivid reminder to me why taking pictures and recording memories are so important.
See this is a picture of my mom and dad's water heater...the same water heater that this past Sunday broke and flooded their cellar...causing my mom to call me, my brother and sister and beg for help....we in turn grabbed our children...and off to mom's we went. There I found my 2 oldest nieces decked out in funky rain boots doing a bucket brigade while we ran around trying to find the main water shut off. During the next four hours my sister and I bickered as we usually do about what to do first and how to do it best...my brother put in his headphones in order to drown out me and my sister...we scolded my dad for wanting to keep a soaking wet vcr that was in need of repairs and he had kept for 10 years...and we vacuumed what seemed like endless amounts of water and hauled nasty wet stuff out to the yard...not exactly a fun day. But we were all together...and as we often do...we managed to find the lighter side of the situation...there was lots of work...but plenty of smiles and laughs. Once most of the chaos was under control I asked my dad to get his camera....and of course a few eyes rolled...but I told him that even disasters deserved to be documented.
Two days later on Tuesday April 13th my dad suddenly collapsed and died almost instantly...he was only 61.
Since that day I have cried more than I can ever remember crying before. As you can imagine my whole family was devastated.
But during this unbearable time of grief this picture of this crappy water heater has brought me some comfort....Tuesday after we learned of his death, we all went back to my mom's where we sat and talked and consoled one another ...at some point my sister said that this water heater was a blessing...it brought us all together unexpectedly for one last time...after she said it out loud more than one of us acknowledged that this thought had occurred to us as well...and as we sat there and tried to cope that day...I realized how special this picture was...I realized that this simple image of a rotted old water heater was now one of my most prized photos and that this one picture would tell a very important story...I knew then that this photo was as precious to me as baby pictures of my children or the last photos I had of my grandmother. Someday when the time is right and I can bear it...I will record this memory like I have so many others and I will treasure it.
So the next time someone asks you why you scrap...tell them it's memories like these...simple moments in our lives that become memories we will have to treasure forever.
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