Scanning Project Done

Today, I finished my scanning project by reviewing and scanning my mother’s important papers. I’ve been putting off this part of the project because thinking of my mother’s last days and the weeks and months leading up to them are very painful.

I found her replacement birth certificate issued 8/13/1941 complete with mud from the Hurricane Agnes flood in 1972. I’ll be sending this paper to my cousin Ethelyn, who keeps track of and researches our family genealogy.

I found a letter I had overlooked before from my brother Ray. He wrote from Korea when he was stationed there during 1972. I never knew she kept all of this stuff until she passed.

There were statements from Hospice and Right at Home. Right at Home is a great home-care agency who took care of Mom from late 2008 until she passed on 3/7/2010. There were ID cards, her NYS driver’s license, and some other miscellaneous items a person collects over their life time.

I found a letter from the Steuben County probation department detailing a $300 check my father had mailed them so they could send it to her. For those of you who may not know, my father left when I was seven, a few months before my brother Jeff was born. Yep, he just left his pregnant wife with their two children and, I guess he knew my mother well – knew we would be well taken care of, because he never contacted her or sent any child support.. Even his family stopped contacting us. My mother did not shirk her responsibility, but worked hard as often and as much as she could and managed to raise three pretty good kids into successful adults.

They did finally catch my father at his brother’s funeral in Pennsylvania and he was made to pay her a meager amount for my brother Jeff who was the only one still home at the time.

How can a father act like that? Even if he hadn’t sent money, he could have let us know he cared about us, but I guess he never did. I think he may have had regrets many years later, but who knows.

I’m glad that job is out of the way. The piles of papers I’ve been staring at for weeks are now scanned, and for the most part, in the trash can. I’ve got the scanned stuff on my computer.

Well, I’m going to take a break now and read. I’m working on my 13th(really my 14th since I’ve already read #14) Jack Reacher novel. Only a couple more to go.

Today is also the anniversary of my cousin Alger’s passing. It’s hard to believe that it’s been a whole year since all of that happened.

Until next time…