More Valuable Than Money

My grandmother died when my mom was 18. My mother gave birth to me when she was 28. Somewhere during those 10 years, all my mother’s childhood photos were destroyed in a flood. Including all the photos of my grandmother. It has pained me for years, not knowing what she looked like. My mother just returned from a 2 month trip to Korea and asked every relative if anyone was able to salvage photos of my grandmother. This morning I got an e-mail from a distant cousin with these two precious scanned photos. Opening those files and seeing her face for the first time was very emotional for me. I cannot express how precious photos are and will be not only to you, but to the generations that come after you. Photographs are what connect us to family now and in the afterlife. Whether professional photographs or just plain snapshots. Document your life. Tell your story through photographs. Pass on your legacy. That is more valuable then any other thing that you could leave behind when you have taken your last breath. You don’t need expensive equipment. Protect those photographs like you would jewelry. Once they are gone, they are gone forever. You can never get those moments back. So here, I share with you a face I have never known, but she is dear to my heart.

(From the top, L-R) My grandfather, my uncle (married to my mother's oldest sister), my mother, my great-aunt, my grandmother, my cousin Hye Jeong.

My grandmother (on the right) and her younger sister.