MEMORY KEEPING 101: NEVER TOO EARLY, ONLY TOO LATE
Christmas 2010
So, I went and grabbed the oldest Christmas picture I had on my computer. One picture and so many stories. You see me and two pets. Let me tell you the memories I see in this photo.
Let’s start with the purple wall!
This house was the first one we bought after we moved back to Texas from our sojourn in California. Bill had detoured through a year in Iraq, interpreting for the Army and I had come back to Dallas to be near my aging parents back in 2006. He was back from Iraq in 2007. We were both in school until about 2008 and we had lived in a rent house, because we didn’t know what we wanted to do when we grew up. We were both in our 50’s. I guess we were having a mid-life crisis.
At the end of 2008 we bought a house in Far North Dallas. The house had great Mid-Century Modern Bones, but it needed love. My mother thought we had lost our minds and perhaps all our money, if this was the best we could do. By 2010, she decided we were OK, because we’d totally renovated it with the help of a decorator who thought a purple wall was a good thing.
If you had a few hours, I could tell you some stories about the decorator – how Bill wanted help, but he didn’t want the usual services and fees of the standard decorator. Looking at wallpaper we found Christine and while she was very affordable, we also got an education in the mess people can make of their lives.
Why don’t I have on any make-up?
This was the Christmas of the infamous rolls! One of Mom’s friends kept half of East Dallas supplied with bread and desserts, but in particular my parents, because they lived down the street. Eddie Jo was always finding a reason to pop down to their house with a pie or a cake. When Eddie Jo offered to make something for our Christmas, Mom suggested yeast rolls. I know why, Eddie Jo’s were delicious. I’m sure my mom was imagining the final product, not the batch of dough Eddie Jo had me come by and pick up on Christmas Eve.
I woke up very early and set about trying to follow Eddie Jo’s instructions, which had sounded quite easy when she gave them to me. HA! I ended up with a kitchen covered in flour and I seemed to be covered in sticky dough from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, but I had no balls of dough rising under a dish towel. I had the whole rest of the meal to complete (Thank goodness it was catered in from Market Street, but it did need to be heated.)
At the end of my last nerve, I woke up Bill and shared my dilemma. He powered through the dough balls while I got everything else ready. I’d already done everything ahead that I could on the previous day, such as set the table, but there was a lot of last minute items on my list.
About 15 minutes before the family arrived, I ran in, took a shower, washed my hair and put on something festive. There was no time for makeup. In this picture I was trying to pretend everything was OK.
As the rest of the meal finished up, I took the rolls out of my office where they’d been rising and put them in the oven to bake while I dished everything up and put it on the table. At the last moment, I opened the door to the oven and there sat the unbaked rolls. My Aunt Edie had “helped” me, by turning off the oven when I took out the turkey.
Who was I supposed to be mad at? Eddie Jo for her aggressive food offerings. My mom for suggesting something as insane as yeast rolls. Aunt Edie for turning off the oven. Well, one thing was for sure, I wasn’t going to be mad at Aunt Edie, because she was in the process of dying of cancer. I wouldn’t have another Christmas with her.
My Jewelry
One of my rings is, of course, my wedding set. Every time I see it, I think of the New Years Eve Party Bill threw the evening he proposed to me. I had no idea he was going to and certainly had not contributed to his selection process.
The other ring is my UTD ring. I was so proud to have graduated Magna Cum Laude with school honors, but there’s a reason that 50 some-odd-year-old woman wanted to have a school ring. I only had my high school ring for a few days. It disappeared. I always say the house ate it, but Mom was convinced the girls down the street stole it. They’d come by when I was washing the dishes and my ring had been sitting on the top of the TV, where I’d put it to keep it from getting in the dishwater. I’m sticking with the house ate it.
The necklace is an enameled replica of a Fabergé egg. My sister-in-law had picked it up for me during her travels. I chose it to go with the red sweater vest, which was a hand-me-down from Aunt Edie. Throughout her life, the hand-me-downs from Aunt Edie were always my favorite clothes. She’s gone now, but her jewelry, accessories and clothes still populate my wardrobe and are worn with pride and joy.
There’s More!
I still haven’t told you about my short-lived career as an Avon lady, which provided me with the red earrings I was wearing and the poinsettia throw on the back of the sofa. I haven’t told you a single story about my beloved Shih Tzu, Precious, or Princess the Pound Cat.
I am a Memory Keeper. Sure, that means I help people resolve their Media Messes and turn them into Memories to be shared with their family and friends for generations to come. It also means that I treasure and share my own memories – and not just my photographs. A true Memory Keeper captures all the memories wherever they are found – in a purple wall and a poinsettia throw.
Once a networking friend said I probably cared more about her memories than she did herself. I can’t say whether or not that was true, but I can tell you how important my own memories are to me. That’s why I am doing everything I can to capture every single one – to set them in stone and provide the stories behind everything you see in my media. Who knows, maybe I actually care more about your memories than you do, but someday, somewhere, someone is going to look at some random photo that you have and wish you’d kept all the memories in them. Let me help you do that. Call me today at 972-971-5263.
jane sadek 