The other day, Roger Bell, President of Footnote told me about one of his friends who died at age eleven.
Tonight I remembered his story and thought about my own friend, David Burgess, who was killed along with his mother in an
auto accident when he and I were five.
My memories of his last two hours of life haven’t dimmed much in the intervening years.
His hand waving out of the car window as they drove away… I can still see his hand waving…
He would be dead in just a few more minutes.
I found the old newspaper clippings that I’d cut from the Salt Lake Tribune the day after the accident and used them in a Footnote page about David’s last day on earth.
The story from my perspective would have gone to the grave with me until Roger’s comments triggered memories of my friend, David Burgess …….. and now, thanks to Footnote, the story is recorded for others. Click here to read it.
I hope his siblings find it one day.
How many memories, photos and old newspaper clippings do you have stored away that need to be recorded and shared before it is too late?
Jot them down. Put them on Footnote pages and also in a binder that you donate to the family history department in a library.
Someone, sometime, will be extremely appreciative of your thoughtfulness.
Gifts of this nature are worth more than gold. If you’ve ever been the recipient of one of these “gifts”, you know that it is true.
Wow. That got me to thinking about how you can store your memories for others once you’ve passed on. I just found this site called farawayfish.com, where you can create a profile of your memories, photos and music, and then it goes live when you die. And you can set emails to be sent to your friends and family when you die. Sounds like an invaluable tool for passing on records and memories.