Stories, Memories, and a Thank You

As far as I can remember, it all started a couple of years ago when one of my grandmother's sisters, Bess,  sat down and told Katelyn a story about herself when she was a little girl.  It was a cute story about a favorite dress of hers, I will have to be reminded of the details, and I should really write it down at that point.  Katelyn was just spell-bound and hung on her every word.  Around the same time, my mom and my aunt started to tell Kate stories about themselves as children and our family growing up.  

Katelyn would then start to request stories from us at her bedtime, so we would always have to try to think of a story about ourselves during the day that we could tell her that night.  The stories would often prompt forgotten memories or details that we couldn't remember.  This would sometimes end up with a phone call to a parent to try to recall why or how an even happened.  

Meanwhile, this past winter, my dear friend Kim (the creator of the name "Cilgamore") decided to do a project to cheer me up while I am receiving treatments.  A friend of hers suggested that she have different friends and family of mine to write some stories down of their memories of me, and put their memories in a journal that we could keep.  This way we would have a record of them, and I could share them with my girls.  At first, I wasn't sure about it all, as I didn't want people to get the wrong idea about it, but once I read the letter that she wrote to send out, I knew it was perfect.  I whipped out a list of about 4 friends and a few family members for her to send the letter to.   My mom, my aunt Jackie, Kim, and a couple of friends that my mom personally asked to do it submitted their entries.  We received it about a month or so ago.  It is just beautiful and I loved it!!!  It was sooo super fun to read those funny memories, some of which I had completely forgotten about. There was one story about me and a friend in a Corvette when we were juniors in high school.  I am still working on all the details on that one--its a little fuzzy!!!  Thank you so much, Kim, for doing this for me.  I don't know if you knew that you were further continuing our tradition of telling stories to our girls.  Now we have lots of new ones to tell!  Kim, you have only come back into my life since December after a long absence of contact, and I don't know what I would do without you!  God knew that I needed you, and we have picked right back up where we left off.   You always make me laugh when I need it most, and aren't afraid to tell me how it is.  I love you, girlfriend!   

Now, if you received a letter and didn't get your entries in:  I STILL WANT THEM!!!  I am being shameless, and I am going to beg you to do it!!  I know you love me, so send them on!!!  You can just e-mail it to me personally, and I will print it and put it in the book.  I love reading these moments, and I want to remember them all.  I also love sharing the fun times we had when we were younger with my girls, and it is a precious keepsake that they will always have when they are grown.  If anyone else would like to participate, I would love to get an entry from you as well.  So now it is a free for all!  

The whole project prompted my mom to do an simple photo album for me with some of my pictures from growing up.  I love it, and it has been soo fun to re-connect with some of those lost childhood moments.   My dad scanned some of these pictures for me too, so I will share some on my blogs.  Thank you, Mom, for continuing the project and the tradition of telling stories.  It is perfect!  

Some pictures for you: