I am a “I-phone picture taking junkie!” My habit is exposed at every family event or function as I take pictures of family, friends, and acquaintances. I love when people cooperate without sticking out their tongue and say “cheese!” To you, I’m just taking pictures but to me, I’m recording cherished memories.

I not only take pictures of people and events. I also take pictures of carefully measured ingredients and step-by-step directions of favorite recipes, so I don’t forget. My picture taking developed quite naturally as I realized heavy albums and cookbooks are not practical. My phone and iPad can store thousands of pictures, and I can look at them anytime I want. Learning my original plan to live forever was just a fantasy, I determined a new plan was necessary.

My memory has become a bit iffy at times, and I felt the need to preserve memories for that little old lady in the proverbial rocking chair, me! My goal is to surround myself with visuals of loved ones experiencing vacations and holidays as we live life. I’ve already lost so many loved ones and some who sadly have lost their memories. My hope is when my memory fades, pictures will help me remember the faces I loved.

I remember my 93-year-old dad saying the saddest thing about living a long life is missing your spouse, your friends, and conversations. It was his one regret in being the last man standing.

I want to be able to look at my loved ones at various ages as my memory becomes fuzzy. I also look at pictures of my “angel friends” and friends who have moved away. I miss them but I can see their smiling faces anytime I want.

I have an exceedingly tough time deleting pictures to create more space. I keep paying for the cloud to protect them and ignore those annoying spam notices that my payment was not received and my pictures will be lost forever. I know better!

As a young mom, with the cost of film and processing fees, money only allowed for special occasion pictures which left huge gaps in the pictures of my kid’s lives. Thankfully, with the invention of I-phones, we can snap to our heart’s content. I have pictures I cherish of my Tanglewood girlfriends making butter cream icing and flowers to decorate a wedding cake, pictures of our girl’s beach trips, and hysterical videos practicing our “Golden Girl” skits. I have pictures of Anniversaries, Weddings, and Birthday celebrations. I love looking at my photos, remembering the happiest times and seeing smiling faces as we grow older.

We cannot predict the future and know we will all experience losses. But in the meantime, we can capture the faces of the people we love. Those out of focus smiles will be precious treasures. May we always be able to remember the faces of the people we loved! And if not, we will have preserved our memories!