Bittersweet

The family and I just got back from a whirlwind tour (by whirlwind I mean hot and tiring) of the nations capital and waiting for me in da pile o’mail when I returned was the new issue of Creating Keepsakes. Now usually I am super excited to get scrappy magazines in the mail…especially when said magazine sits on top of a week old pile of bills I’d rather not deal with and normally I would have been doubly excited since one of my layouts appears on one of the pages within. But alas (yes I said alas…can you tell I’m reading Harry Potter now) I was not quite as excited as I normally would have been. ***Alert…Debbie Downer Time*** Instead I was a little sad to see the magazine laying on the counter. See the layout that was selected to be published was of my step-dad Jimmie who died suddenly and unexpectedly in April. I had taken the pictures of him on March 19th and did the layout that night and submitted the layout the next morning. On April 2nd I was notified the layout was selected and I was so happy. 11 days later he died.  Luckily he saw the original layout and photos before he died and he knew he was going to be in a magazine…unfortunately he never got to see himself in print. So that being said…I knew I would probably cry a little when I opened it and found my layout (which is on page 97 if I haven’t mentioned that already) and as predicted when I found the layout I shed a few tears just as I usually do when I stop to think of him.  At the same time I smiled. I cried for what I lost and I smiled for what I was fortunate to have. I was fortunate to have an opportunity to take photos of someone I loved doing something they loved and I was fortunate enough to be able to tell a small small part of his story… I was fortunate I scrapped. So like I said…bittersweet.

****note…apparently its been so long since I blogged I forgot how to publish a post…I typed this post on August 14th but apparently I never published it****