Gift Memory Box
In South Africa, there are whole generations of children growing up not knowing their parents and grandparents who have been tragically lost to HIV and Aids.
Both my mother and mother-in-law work, through their church outreach programmes, with families who have been affected by HIV and Aids. One of the projects they have implemented successfully is the memory box and I thought that this is a wonderful idea, not just for families affected this way, but for everyone to leave a part of themselves behind so future generations can learn more about them.
Basically a memory box contains things about you. Some of the suggested items to include are a sample of your handwriting, samples of your voice, some photos of you and your family – parents and grandparents if possible, even your favourite pet! Tracing your roots has become very popular again these days, and including a copy of your family tree if you have one, would be wonderful.
Greg and I were prompted to delve into his family tree by a great aunt of his. Trixie celebrates her 90th birthday this Saturday, and she has been a wonderful source of information, from photos, to stories about his grandfather and great grandfather. We first met her two years ago and it has been wonderful getting to know more about his history. We discovered that his great grandfather was an architect, and this meant so much to him, as it helped explain his passion for architecture, the profession he too chose to follow. His father knew nothing about his grandfather, and so without this information from Trixie, Greg would never have known this information
Another good idea is to try writing a letter telling future generations a bit more about yourself, talk about growing up, what your favourite things were as a child, a teenager and an adult. Tell them about your friends, and other family members. Things that might seem mundane to you could be really fascinating to future generations.
A perfect way to pull all this information together would be to decoupage a box, as discussed in one of my previous articles – there it was used as a gift box for babies, but it has many wonderful uses. Perhaps you could photocopy photos to stick on the top of the box as a memento itself, just remember to use some hairspray on the photocopies to seal the ink before modging and varnishing the top.
As a new mother, my legacy to my daughter will really be lessons that I have learned through the years, it will be in guiding her to make the right choices in life, teaching her everything I can. One’s biggest fear as a parent is not being able to be there for your children, a memory box like this can be a wonderful gift to them. I have already started recording my thoughts for her while I sit in traffic on the way to work in the morning, a good use of this otherwise useless time in my day.