Pop’s Legacy

Perhaps you have looked at the Estate Legacy portion of my site and wondered where I ever got the idea to try to preserve the memories of others through photography and the written word. To be able to capture the feelings of a home, the essence of what makes an estate a subject worthy of a book, you have to understand what a house, a home, can mean to someone. When it comes to the estate legacy products I do understand the value, the meaning and the memories of a family legacy. I understand because I know what it is like to no longer be able to hold the dream of passing or the receiving, of the torch to the next generation. For me it is personal.

The image below is a bad shot and I will never claim otherwise, but it is a snapshot of a memory I will carry with me forever. You see I took this snapshot a long, long time ago before I had good equipment or how to use it, before I knew the value of what an image can do. This shot was the beginning of my need to become a better photographer. This image is the one that got away; the one that made me realize that moments don’t repeat themselves and that the memories we carry can either fade in time, or become the only thing that we have left.

When I took the image I had woken up early one summer morning some 20 or 30 years ago and I saw the sun shining through the trees in a magical way. I ran and grabbed my camera, I don’t even remember which one it was, and I took at least two rolls of film trying to capture the feeling of the sun warming the country air the glow of the day beginning. This is the only one I still have from that morning. Not my best shot but one of my best memories because nothing mattered but the sense of warmth, safety and serenity I felt at that moment in time.

I have spent hundreds of days since then up at the crack of dawn waiting for the light, waiting for the sun to stream through the trees and those feelings to come back to me. All that waiting has been in vain. I have yet to see the sun through the trees like that again.

That image was taken from the back yard of my mother’s home, the home she inherited from her father. My grandfather built the house in 1939 and lived there until he suffered the stroke that would take him to the hospital for the last time. He didn’t return to the place he loved so. He did remain a part of the place however and as I write this, I can still feel his presence there. However it won’t be for much longer. You see the house is being sold and the buyer is intending to tear down the house my grandfather built 73 years ago. The land, the property, and the legacy is about to change forever.

All I have are the images I took through the years, the snapshots my family has accumulated and the stories we all remember. That and the memories of the sun shining through the trees, the misty mornings, and the feelings of serenity that place brought me.

I have less than 4 days to go and capture any other images I want. I have only a short time to find the sun calling to me through the trees again. I must put it in a book before it is gone forever.  I understand what it is like to have to say goodbye to a legacy that I just don’t want to let go of.