Baby Love

It’s sort of hard to write about this layout. 

Real hard! 

My mother recently passed away after a very long battle with Alzheimer’s.  12 years she languished with this horrible disease eating away her memories and her personality until last December 30 when her body simply forgot how to function.  It’s been a hard process to grieve for her even though she’s been gone far longer. 

My Dad passed away 14 years ago. He’d been told by the Dr that he could go any time.  His heart was barely functioning and he lived in so much pain the last years of his life.  A transplant wasn’t a possibility because of other health issues and the insurance refused to pay for any more surgical procedures that would help him live longer and with less pain.  The last time I saw him, he hugged me and said to me, “I’ll see you again over there.” He knew we wouldn’t see each other again on this earth. I didn’t take him seriously. I miss them both.

Even before my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, I think we had a bit of an idea that there was something else wrong. She was highly paranoid and quarrelsome.  I won’t go into particulars.  My dad was constantly depressed and frankly my parents were incapable of being good parents.  All of us, my 4 sisters and me, have some pretty deep scars.

Just after my mother slipped away from us completely a few years ago, my mother’s twin sister sent me these photos.  What a comfort they were to me.  I saw that despite of all the mental health issues, my parents loved me and wanted me.  Can’t you just see the baby love exuding from both of them! 

When scrapping pictures that are of you and you have no memories of, you obviously can’t say much about the circumstances unless you still have a parent to tell you about them.  I didn’t. The approach I took was to scrap them and tell how the pictures made me feel and how they impacted my impressions of my parents and our relationship.  It was therapeutic and I think that scrapping about old photos like this can be a good way to work through hard relationships! 

Another approach I took was to not crop them as much as I probably would have a contemporary photo.  These photos contain a little time capsule of how life was for my parents and me in 1954.  The wallpaper, the furnishings,  every thing is part of that moment in time.   They form part of the story and are important.

Here you go!

Once again, this paper is old.  I think I’ve had it since I first started scrapping and that’s 12 years!  Finally it’s being used!  Yea!  The yellow cardstock is Bazzill and the three shades of blue are Coredinations.  Love that Cordinations.  The silhouette is from a Child’s year, the title from Designer’s Calendar the script feature, and the frames, tag and hearts are from Sentimentals.  The ribbon is Hobby Lobby and the buttons are from my stash which is from many different sources.  The edge of the floral border in the middle was made using a Fiskars template. 

Some close ups for you:

 

I don’t know why that picture is on its side.  I didn’t do it and it won’t let me fix it!  Grrrr.

Again!

Tomorrow I’ll share a layout I’ve made which remembers my aunt who just passed away last week.