With graduation comes the task of sifting through old photos, selecting just the right ones to feature in various ceremonies. It’s daunting, at first, eighteen years of moments big and small. How to choose? I haven’t meant to but I’ve gotten lost in them. She came before cameras were digital and so flimsy envelope after envelope overflows with double prints and the negatives just in case. I find myself lingering over each one, too long, trying to summon a feel.
In an instant I can recall where any given shot was taken–the occasion, the slice of our life–but the feel of her bitty hand in mine is lost. No means–yet–to preserve that.
The photos of her have an ombre to them. Like the layered colors of Grand Canyon they tell the story of how she came to be. Soft and shy bleeds to silly and googly-eyed bleeds to unsure bleeds to honest smiles, so full of life and possibility. Big and true today.
Her saucer eyes stare back from under a moppy blonde head of hair at two and there aches a longing in my chest, just to have a moment of it back. But she’ll walk through the door, those same blonde locks and those same blue eyes. Hi momma. So different but still the same.
I’m thankful for the freeze-frames, but the living color is sweeter still.
Such a perfect photo! My second thought was, after thinking what a great photo it is, that can’t be Torri because 2000 was not that long ago.
Such a great photo and I have the same thoughts, sifting through the photos reminds me of just how far away we are from the days when I have a teeny little girl.
One memory I have never forgotten in all my life is little Torri toddling around the house with her hands up asking, “Where is it? Where’d it go?” Now whenever I here the phrase, I think of her. You have done a great job Momma!
Wow! I can’t imagine. I get lost in the pictures of the previous year alone when I work on the kids’ birthday posts. I can’t imagine going through 18 years of sweet memories. I still can’t believe that she is graduating. I hope you’re surviving these heart-tugging moments.
Love the picture…so adorable.
Darcie…going through this with you is even more heart-tugging because you put the simple things so eloquently into words and simplify the complex into what really matters. Thanks, friend. (Would you like to arrange a marriage?)
I am going through the same thing…going through old photos for various graduation events, scanning the actual prints into the computer. Did you see my Facebook post today? Sniff….