Scrapbooking As A Lifeline
By Kate Rothacker

Sometimes memories are all you have.

My family is at a difficult stage of life right now, as my
80-year-old mother is showing increasing levels of dementia.
She needs to be reminded where she is, what we’re doing, whom
she is with—even what she likes—and she’s fond of telling tales
from long, long ago—sometimes repeating the same stories ten
minutes later.

I am especially grateful now that she had let me start
scrapbooking her huge stash of family pictures over a year ago.
The stories and details she shared with me as we sorted the
pictures at that time have become so much more than just
journaling facts for our family history. As she recedes into
her long-term memories, the information she shared while still
in the world of reality have given me a way to relate with her
that I didn’t have before.

When I originally sat down with her to gather this information,
I confess that it was not for her sake, but to save those
identities & family histories from being lost forever, so I
could include them for our family heritage. I had no way of
knowing then that God wasn’t just saving them for a faceless
future—He was preparing for a time when Mom would need someone
to connect with. He gave me that information as a gift of
connection with my Mom so she won’t be alone in her memories in
her final years.

So now, I can guide her as she retells the stories, and what a
delight to see her face light up as she recalls the scenes
again. This was a benefit I did not expect from
scrapbooking—but it is certainly one I welcome, and I encourage
you to scrapbook your aging relatives’ lives not just for the
future—but to be able to minister with those same stories. And
if you are not a scrapbooker yourself, there are professional
scrapbook artists who will take the information you gather and
put it in book form--but the important thing I discovered with
my Mom is that the process was so much more important than the
finished product.

About the Author: Kate Rothacker is a mom, wife, daughter, &
sister, which gives her plenty of material to scrapbook--but
requests by friends and family led her begin to scrapbook
professionally for others. She also leads weekend scrapbooking
events, teaches workshops, & creates custom designs under the
name Local Memories Scrapbook Services
(http://www.localmemories.com).

Source: http://www.isnare.com