Keeping in touch with photos is quick, easy

I like pictures. The latest images to appear on my laptop are of a small boy photobombing his parents, a baby girl sitting up for the first time with the aid of lots of pillows, another small boy holding a giant dragonfly and a video of a toddler flying into her father’s arms.

Three different families all shared their memories with me and their friends and families. It was all done so quickly and easily. It wasn’t that long ago that pictures were more than a combination of dots on a screen. Photographs were meant to be held, studied and sometimes given to the postman to be delivered at a future date.

I have oodles of paper prints. The names may be lost on some of them and the images may fade, but they will never be lost in space like digital portraits can be. One of my current favorites is a cracked picture of my grandfather and his brothers pretending they are outlaws in the old west. One brother is holding a rifle on the other two who have their hands in the air. It makes me smile to know that my grandfather and his brothers had a sense of humor.

The two small boys mentioned above are my grandsons. Jacob was the photobomber. For once, the snapshot of him didn’t feature whatever critter, dead or alive, that he managed to claim as his own. He reminds me so much of my brother, Michael, who was known to bring home turtles and stash them under the console television. At least Jacob leaves his discoveries outside.

Nicholas was the dragonfly catcher. He was extremely upset that he wasn’t allowed to keep it. He is also the one who took his stuffed dragon, Pickles, to school. The other kids didn’t believe that Pickles could fly. Pickles proved them wrong.

The baby sitting up for the first time belongs to my marathon-running niece, Jane. All that running Jane did while she was pregnant seems to have given her baby, Molly, a head start on sitting up ahead of schedule. Either that, or the pillows were providing more support than Jane was admitting to.

The toddler belongs to Jane’s sister, Margaret. Margaret’s husband, Bob, had returned from a charity trip to Brazil where he and his co-workers had provided glasses to those who couldn’t afford them. The sheer joy on that little girl’s face as she ran to her daddy was wonderful to behold. It was matched by the love in Bob’s face as he swung her into the air before hugging her tight.

If not for the wonders of technology, I wouldn’t have had the honor of sharing in any of those moments. My nieces and my daughter wouldn’t have thought that any of those snippets of their children’s lives were important enough to take the time to put into the mail.

It is the little things that make up a life. Children who are comfortable enough to sneak into a staged photo of their parents or catch a big bug are our future. Nieces who believe with all their hearts that their children are special, precocious and loved beyond belief are raising the next generation.

Visual records, be they brittle and faded or bright and digital, are a way of proving to ourselves that we are all the same. Even our grandparents used to pretend they were someone else. Babies, toddlers and children are all beautiful and innocent, as we, ourselves, once were.

Someday my nieces and daughter will look back with fondness when they once again see their children as they once were. I like pictures. They connect me with people I love.