That poem is so very, very true. My sister and I just spent at least 4 mos clearing out my mother's mobile home, etc.. We found package after package of photos, negatives, etc. Maybe 1/2 of them had any notation, information! Besides everyone, memories fade, people die, etc. What we all would have given for just simple information. I found a picture of my paternal gm's uncle and his wife. Just a note "Oscar and wife." We had no idea where the photo was taken or even a date. Mother always said that was going to make an album, etc. She is living in a senior citizens housing apt complex. It will be up to my sister to help her identify the people. Even if she could, I wouldn't be there. Many of the photos are of family, friends and happy times. As I heard once, "Life happens while you are making other plans." Carole Beth Arnette San Antonio, TX ----- Original Message ----- From: "Diane T" <mzplum_2000@yahoo.com> To: <MO-STLOUIS-METRO-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, January 26, 2004 12:21 PM Subject: [StL-Metro] Strangers in a Box.....a different kind of warning. > Here's another kind of warning from Robert Ragan's E-zine....how many of us still don't heed the message? > > Diane T. > mzplum_2000@yahoo.com > > > Strangers in the Box > by Pam Harazim > > >From article in Robert Ragan's TREASURE MAPS > Genealogy E-zine > > "In 1997, I authored the poem titled, 'Strangers in > the Box'. I originally wrote the poem when my mother > had dementia, and I realized that the stories she loved > to tell me about her youth and her family were locked > inside her, and I didn't remember them like I was so > sure I always would. Hence, the 'box of strangers'." > > STRANGERS IN THE BOX > Come, look with me inside this drawer, > In this box I've often seen, > At the pictures, black and white, > Faces proud, still, serene. > > I wish I knew the people, > These strangers in the box, > Their names and all their memories > Are lost among my socks. > > I wonder what their lives were like. > How did they spend their days? > What about their special times? > I'll never know their ways. > > If only someone had taken time > To tell who, what, where, when, > These faces of my heritage > Would come to life again. > > Could this become the fate > Of the pictures we take today? > The faces and the memories > Someday to be tossed away? > > Make time to save your pictures, > Seize the opportunity when it knocks, > Or someday you and yours could be > The strangers in the box. > > (Pam Harazim, East Hampton, CT) > Copyright 1997 by Pamela A. Harazim. All Rights > Reserved. May be used in unchanged form for > non-commercial purposes if accompanied by this > copyright message. > ***** > I'm sure we all get the message, but how many of > us will act on it?......Diane