Making Memories

I lied to my wife. And the best part was she wasn’t mad at all when I told her what about and why. No I don’t believe in lying and I don’t make a practice of doing it. But I had ulterior motives for visiting my brother and family when I. You see I mainly went to complete a project with my sister- in-law. I just had to keep it a secret from my wife.

Since last year I’ve had this vision of having some photographs made of myself for my wife. I wanted portraits made of me before this illness completely has me in its grips. I wanted her to have photographs to look back on and remember me how I was before it took me over completely.

How I was going to do was easier said than done. I can’t handle the bills and I can longer drive. So I

didn’t know how I was going come with an excuse of missing money to explain the cost of a photographer let alone getting me to one. Then I found out my sister-in-law could do them for free. All I needed to do was go stay with them a few days which is not uncommon for me to do anyway because my mom lives with them as well. 

So one day we trekked the one hundred degree weather and took photos. A lot of photos. And they are worth it. I got plenty of photos to edit and give my wife. The props are me, a suitcase, my Bible, and some photos. We focused on the theme of me saying goodbye to my memories and to those in my life I love. The former me was walking away on a train track. 

We did other poses that I’m fond of. I normally don’t like taking photographs but this was important for me to do for my wife. I want her to have them. Once she viewed them I didn’t know if she was going to make it through them. I expected her to tear up as she did. 

It was a bonus to get to spend the time with my brother. We are a lot alike. The rest of our family joke about how my  brother and I can laugh at things together no one else gets or have inside joke no one else understand. I don’t get to see my brother much and I don’t like that. I want to spend as much time with him as I can because he’s leaving on his fifth overseas deployment to Korea in November for a year. A lot can happen to me health wise in a year.

I enjoyed the time with sister-in-law as well. She’s hilarious in her own way which makes us all laugh. We too tend to have the same kind of humor. And she doesn’t Parkinson’s or dementia but she does have health issues and that has helped us have each other to talk to.

I enjoyed my time with my mom. But my mom wears me out. She’s always on go. I’m not complaining. I would rather push myself and live what life I have and enjoy it than to spend it wasting away. Sometimes it’s just hard for me to keep up. We went garage selling and a few times I had to take time outs to rests. I don’t even like going garage selling but I actually did like going with my mom and sister-in-law. I even found myself a couple of children’s rocking chairs to redo and resell to make a profit. I love to redo furniture.

One of my nieces was with us. I like having her around. I had been watching her when let out for summer but then we moved to another town and I had to stop watching her and that disappointed me. But she is funny and we make each other laugh.

I did have a few rough times while visiting my family. I kept forgetting names and other things. I forgot my sister-in-law’s and my niece’s name a few times. I couldn’t remember the names of some objects. And for the life of I cannot ever remember the names of their pets. A few times I got confused and couldn’t remember some things. And I don't remember Friday at all. But they are all understanding and helpful.

Here are only a few of the pictures my sister-in-law took. And we didn’t even get to finish taking all we wanted to. The one hundred degree heat with no clouds was not in our favor.