Generational Torch - Legacy of Joanne Dunn Gaffey

Objective:

We all want to find meaning and purpose in life. As we lose our parents, we should reflect on what we learned from them.

Conclusion:

Below, please find, my clumsy summarization of some of the things Mom meant to me

This is far from a complete list; but it's a start.
And something I think you can help me with.
Something I know I can help you with.
Let's work together. We're not getting any younger.
What advice would you add?
How do you wish to be remembered?
Just who are you, anyway?
Passing on generational memories are like final dispostion plans
you can handle arrangements yourself
or leave it up to your survivors to deal with.

source

Mom was a scrapbooker, clipping articles that recorded family events -
births, deaths, weddings, graduations, acheivements,..
along with family photos in photo album binders or journaling books.

I never asked her why she kept them, but if I had to guess,
she cared about people
she wanted to remember.

She must also have intended them serve as a conduit to pass down
generational knowledge - she showed them to me and jump started
my genealogy research and content collection.

I took it and ran with it when it was obvious we were losing Dad back in 2011.
The journey has led me through many interesting discoveries.
A clearer understanding of how my parents grew up.
Perspective on correlation of family history and history.
The evolution of family life.
High incidence of premature births.

Extended families no longer remain in their birth communities these days.
So even though we have better transportation and telecommunications,
we have lost proximity and ease of access to one another.

Fortunately, we do have tools to help overcome distance and time.
And we have better mediums for exchanging images, information, stories and histories.
It's up to us to take advantage. Share your wisdom and your memorbilia stash.

And all you young whippersnappers, take the time to consider what is being shared.
Use it wisely. We are not disrespecting you. We are simply sharing perspective.
Perhaps if we each curated our "best of" images and stories and submitted it to our collection
we can better get to know each other and stay in touch. It's hard getting people on the phone,
but we can text, FB message, email and even use mail correspondence.
So let's figure out which conduits work best between us.

From my perspective, gathering this content in a central location, accesible to everyone, through links
makes a hell of a lot more sense than sending files all over the place. But of course I need you to send them to me
in order to load them to our website. I need to get out of the hunter gatherer mode to find this stuff if I am to
vastly improve the quality of the content and robustness of access points. So if we have gatherer volunteers
interested in supporting this effort, please come forward.

We are smarter and stronger together;
just as Mom intended.