Face Time Capsules

Talking with my Mom today about her old address book, I asked her not to throw it away. She asked, "do you want it?" I told her it was history. She is saving it in her bottom drawer for me.

She had been wanting a new address book for a while. So many people have moved, numbers changed. Family members have died. You know, life. So, I got us matching address books for Christmas. They are sweet, with delicate blue butterflies on the cover. Blue is her favorite color. 

Now that she has updated her addresses and numbers, her sister and brothers aren't in there. She misses them every day. As we talked about all these changes I brought up how I still have Grandma Heugly's number on my phone, same with Sandy's cell. I started texting her when she moved to Arizona. But I don't have any of Stephie's numbers or even her address and this saddens and embarrasses me. I feel ashamed that someone I love so dearly, I have lost that physical earthly piece of them. I could drive you there. I have driven to her old house, just to see it. But I have no physical or digital record of it. Steph passed before smart phones and Facebook. We used to IM on AOL and send goofy emails, but they are gone. Lost in the ether with bouncing sheep and dancing babies.

Here's where my brain went after that conversation; so many of us are so digital now that each of our devices, our phones, our laptops, our tablets, they have become time capsules. They hold soooooo much of our lives, our memories that they need to be entrusted to someone if we aren't here anymore. I have designated a dear friend the keeper of my Facebook, why is there not a protocol for all our other devices? I mean, with my Mom and Dad they are mostly analog and gladly they are analog enough to have a notebook of all their passwords. 

Now on to the likes of us, with the multitudes of social medias and passwords and SO MANY PICTURES IN THE CLOUD. These little posts we make every day, these Facebooks and Grams and Tik Toks, are the choice pieces of a life journal we are choosing to share. Some are light years more choice than others, and still, they are part of our whole. I think they are worth protecting. So start making a plan with someone to save them. It is history.