WWYD? (scrapbook related)

[jessica31876]

I have never been a chronologial scrapper. I just scrap whatever whenever. So I still have tons of photos of my son who passed away from his whole life (from birth to just a couple days before the accident). I know I will never scrap all of them because that is just how I am. But my question is how do I do the journaling. It feels weird to record the story like he would someday be reading it which is how I usually journal. Like the books would eventually be passed on to the kids. But it also feels weird to journal like he is gone now and I am documenting his life that has already been lived. It really makes it hard to be inspired to scrap the photos at all really even though I want to record his life just like I am for his brother and sister.

 

[Julie Billingsley]

I think I'd journal it as though you are talking to your husband or other kids. Like "I was so proud of Matthew when he got an A on that report in school. He worked very hard for that grade." So I wouldn't say "you" in the journaling. I actually scrap mostly for myself anyway. I plan on pulling out the scrapbooks when I'm 90 and reading about all the things that I've forgotten, so I think scrapping his life is totally awesome.

 

[kristijoy]

What a challenge Jessica. I think that would be hard for me to do, but at the same time could be therapeutic and very special. I think I would want to approach it as a celebration. Highlighting his characteristics, positive qualities, joys, & triumphs. I always journal my son's pages as if I am writing to him. Things like:

"Your face lit up today when you discovered you could lick your own ice cream cone!"

It documents the experience without highlighting that he is now no longer on this earth plane. Because, he is really still there. His life was true. Nothing he lived or experienced is ever lost! It is still apart of you and him! It's not just 'memories' but moments of growth and inner experience that is still apart of you both.

 

[rach3975]

I think I'd journal it as though you are talking to your husband or other kids. Like "I was so proud of Matthew when he got an A on that report in school. He worked very hard for that grade."

If it feels weird to do it like you're talking to him, then I'd do it like Julie suggested.

 

[Freckles]

I would have a hard time with this as well. I think I would do it like Julie says.

 

[jacinda]

I'd journal Kristi's way. Like I'm talking to him. Using 'he' sounds more impersonal than 'you'.

 

[mariewilcox]

Jessica - I still have this problem when I journal about DH and it's been 9 years this week since he passed.

I still have a lot of photos of him with our son that I haven't scrapped and some with our daughter and a lot of just him throughout his career with the Marines and a lot of he and I together.

The ones that I scrap for our kids books I journal as if I were talking to the kids: "You and Dad had such a great time at the race track today." That way when they read through them it's like reading a story. For ones that I scrap of just him or of he and I, I journal as if I'm talking to him in the present tense because he was alive when the photos were taken and the layouts are a journal of sorts of his life and when I or anyone else looks back through them we're reading a story of his life as it was - does that make sense?

It's hard, but for me it's important to tell his story so that future generations will know who he was. Even if we didn't have kids he has a story to be told. You and your husband and your other kids and their future children will want to know who your son was, so scrapping his story is important.