This photo comes from the LDS Church News in 1980. In the picture you see my sister's; Maria and Laurel, and my amazing grandmother, Mattie. It is a view that doesn't seemed staged to me because I saw my grandmother showing her book of remembrance to many people, especially her family.
My grandmother had tight, perfect, penmanship that fills the pages of her book (she was a first grade teacher.) I watched her spend long hours preparing and publishing countless documents, cutting and pasting hundreds of obituaries, and writing the stories of her loved ones with meticulous care.
The record of her love for genealogy has been left to her family in the form of her book of remembrance and many of us have our own copy so we can reread her labor often. Family History has moved ahead these days and is no longer handwritten, but the work she did then still lives on as I pass her stories along on FamilySearch.org, or send photos to my children, or reminisce in my blog.
I am so grateful for the time I had to spend with my grandma, for her love and devotion to family, and for the things she felt were important. Whenever I miss her most, I just take out her life's work, look at the photos, and I feel her with me. May I be able to share my love of genealogy with my children and grandchildren as she did.
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