Day 35 ~ clippings

My mom never threw anything away. Most people her age didn't. She was born in 1918 on a farm where you used everything you had and saved what you didn't use because you might find a use for it tomorrow, next month, or next year. What you see here is maybe one-tenth of one percent of the newspaper clippings, papers, letters, cards, announcements, programs, church bulletins, and other assorted paper items that she collected in drawers, bags, shelves, and other cubby-holes in her house. Last night, I brought home a shopping bag filled with stuff that I wanted to go through (just in case I found a one-of-a-kind photo or momento). Instead, I found obituary notices, birth and wedding announcements, notices of "barn-raisings" and prize fish catches. This was my mom's life: cataloging the rhythm of her life through brittle snips of newspaper print. Did she ever look at the clippings again? Sure, she did! She used them to remember a wedding anniversary party, the birth of the neighbor girl, the time when daddy was featured in a local news story...This kept her mind sharp, even when her body was failing her. She can still tell you how old her Aunt Clara (her namesake) would be on her next birthday...