Winter Doldrums

My kindergartner has been out of school since noon on February 5 through tomorrow, February 17 due to the winter snow storms that hit the DC area. I love snow. I love my family. I love fires in the fireplace, but this is a little much. It’s given me time to clean some things out, which is needed and therapeutic. It has also given me too much time with my own thoughts. I need to embark on a new project.

I worked at a furious rate on putting together photos of my mother-in-law, Gail the week after she died. It gave me a purpose and was cathartic. Everything happened so fast during those several weeks as she declined and then as we readied for the funeral and hosting family. Ryan’s father and Grandmother departed when the first snowflakes began to fall. Suddenly we were left with three feet of snow and dying funeral flowers.

A week prior to Gail’s death, my mother handed me a banker’s box full of my father’s collection of photos from his youth in Hungary and later California. Ryan was gone, saying his goodbyes and supporting his family and I was left home with two sick children. I began to look through the box, telling myself I’d look through just one envelope of pictures. The next thing I knew I was sorting them by era, subject matter and researching my Grandfather’s business connection with John Lloyd Wright, one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s sons. I began scanning photos that my cousin, aunt and brother would appreciate including my parent’s wedding photo. I had never seen it before and thought my mother looked sophisticated in her pink pillbox hat. I emailed it to her and she told me not to show it to anyone since she looked horrible in it.

The project was interrupted by Gail’s decline and all the emotions that come with losing a loved one. So, I guess this is as good a time as ever to pick up the Bagdy Family Photo Project. My cousin, Alethea, knows other family members in Hungary that may be able to assist with recalling who are in these photos if my father adn aunt are unable. Maybe at some point once these images are digitized we can collect all of them in a book, for the surviving members of the family. In the meantime it gives me a good project to work and the purpose I need to keep me going until springtime.