How To Organise Your Picture Albums

My mother recently had surgery on her hip. She had to keep weight off of her hip for several weeks to insure that it would heal properly. Mom is a very active person and so I was concerned that she would get bored and even depressed during this healing process. I wanted to find some type of project that she could do that would fill her time and interests. My mom is a very giving person and I knew that if she was doing something that she felt was helping me it would help to fight off depression. I have had a number of photographs that have been piling up through the years. These pictures are still in the envelopes that they came in from development. I have purchased a number of picture albums over the years, but I have not taken the time to fill them. I packed up the photos and picture albums and went to my mother’s apartment.

We had hired home care for my mother to help her with her personal cares and meal preparation during the time that she was confined to her bed. The nursing assistant was packing up her things when I arrived. She told me that my mom was getting depressed. Mom had asked the nursing assistant to keep her drapes closed so she was lying in a semi dark, quiet room. She said that she did not want to watch television and that she did not want to read. She asked me what I had in the box. I explained that I had brought over picture albums and photos and that I needed to have her go through them. Mom was not very excited about this. She thought is would be too hard to have the photos spread all over her bed. I rolled the bed tray over in front of her and helped her to sit up with her pillow supports. I then took out the recent photos that I had just picked up to show her. Mom saw the number of picture albums that I had in the box and asked why I had bought so many. I explained that the albums had been collected through the years and that the photos were from the last twenty years that I have been married. Mom said that maybe she would look at them later.

I was worried about my mom when I left and was certain that she would not do anything with the photographs. I called her the next day. One of her friends answered the telephone and told me that she was helping my mom sort through my photos. She suggested that I get more picture albums so that the photos could be organized well. I told her that I did not expect the photographs to be organized.

Three days later I went to see mom again. She had been organizing the photos and said that it was enjoyable going through so many pictures that she had not seen for years. She seemed in better spirits. I told her that I would not be seeing her for ten days because I had to be out of town on business. When I visited her ten days later I had a stack of picture albums waiting for me. She had written captions and as many dates as she could on each of the picture albums. She said that her friends were helping her and that they all found this to be a fun pass time. They were going to start on photographs for my sister next week.