Photo album —what to do with this?

[iris lilies]

Here I am again crowdsourcing opinion on what I should do with a bunch of old photographs. ( you guys helped me decide on action with a previous batch of photographs going to an estranged family member. )

I have an album of photos. The album belonged to my friend who was murdered by her husband in the year 2001. I pulled the album out of the dumpster after her family had cleaned out her house and they threw stuff in the dumpster. That was my first mistake of course because now I feel responsible for it.
It coontains photos of her and varios people, including her murdering husband.

ugh.

Suggestions on what to do with this?

[Tradd]

Throw it out after removing any pictures of your friend you might like to have.

[razz]

Throw it out after removing any pictures of your friend you might like to have.
+1

[Yppej]

If there is a website commemorating her possibly upload some of the pictures there.

[Teacher Terry]

I agree with tradd.

[pinkytoe]

Yikes, I would pitch it and as mentioned perhaps save 1-2 photos of your friend. I have the same dilemma with a file folder I have saved of my brother's bits of paperwork/photos. He died at 31 and few will remember him except me - so I feel the guilt of letting go of the traces of his short time on earth.

[SteveinMN]

+whatever. Save whichever images you want and don't feel badly about tossing the rest. Hey, even her own family did that...

[Tybee]

That's a really sad situation. I guess I'd keep a few of her and like Steve said, if her own family did not want them--but are you sure about that, or did the husband throw them out? And how would you find her family members again?

I guess if I were going to destroy them I would do it in some way that blessed her life, sort of like a neighborhood memorial service or something.

Maybe other neighbors would like the pictures?

So awful.

[catherine]

Can you digitize the pictures that best represent your friend and pitch the rest? Does she have any family deserving of these photos?

I don't know if you're like me, but it sounds like you feel that you are responsible for her memory. I feel exactly the same way about my greataunt--the one I loved so much. She had one son who died when he was 3 years old. After that, it was my mother (her niece--an only child) and me. I have lain awake nights sad because I am the last keeper of her memory, and she deserves to be remembered.

But, in the end, who of us will be remembered in 50 years? 75 years? 100 years? We may be some link on Ancestry.com, or a gravestone in a cemetery, but that's it.

So if having those photos gives YOU comfort, keep one or two or ten. If not, cherish her memory, and accept it for what it is.

[Gardnr]

Here I am again crowdsourcing opinion on what I should do with a bunch of old photographs. ( you guys helped me decide on action with a previous batch of photographs going to an estranged family member. )

I have an album of photos. The album belonged to my friend who was murdered by her husband in the year 2001. I pulled the album out of the dumpster after her family had cleaned out her house and they threw stuff in the dumpster. That was my first mistake of course because now I feel responsible for it.
It coontains photos of her and varios people, including her murdering husband.

ugh.

Suggestions on what to do with this?

Do you have a contact to the family? If yes, make that contact. Tell them you salvaged the album and ask if they would like it back.

I say this because Mom had me get rid of Dad's stuff and then later was angry it was gone. I had kept it and she was grateful to have it back.

[iris lilies]

Thank you for comments. This all happened before the age of digital photography so there are no backups,kind of a weird sitation now that I think about it.

Today I called my neighbor who said ahe would take this photo album. I assured her I didnt care what she did with it.

We had a neighborhood memorial service for this woman, no more is necessary. She had no children but she did have nieces, that is true,

In the back of my mind, I saved it for one of several reasons: to see if her husband, the murderer, would want it when he got out of the pen. He got out a few years ago and I am not now inclined to contact him or to contact mutual friends who could givie it to him.

with this gone, that is the end of 98% of my collections of photos, letters, etc that had me paralyzed. I have 3 letters out of 40 that I hung onto, still paralyzed, but thatbis ok. and I have one autographed book that I need to dispose of carefully. Thats really what this is all about, appropriate disposition.

I am not a Sentimental person, and I certainly do not keep Hallmark cards or Christmas cards or anything like that, but the personal letters were very different. Several collections of photographs for I didn’t feel were really mine.

I have a sizable batch of letters that my father wrote during World War II. I have not read them. One of these winters I will read them, maybe scan any that I particularly like, and send them to to my brother. Neither of us have children so they will die with us. But I do want to see if there’s any reference to his brothers because those letters could go to grand children of the brothers. These letters are fine, they dont worry me or paralyze me, I have a plan for them.

[razz]

IL, is there a possibility that a local veterans organization might enjoy reviewing the letters that your father wrote, IF you are comfortable doing that. A lot of history is being recaptured by doing this with knowledgeable people who are familiar with the situation that each soldier faced.

[iris lilies]

IL, is there a possibility that a local veterans organization might enjoy reviewing the letters that your father wrote, IF you are comfortable doing that. A lot of history is being recaptured by doing this with knowledgeable people who are familiar with the situation that each soldier faced.
I dont know, maybe. It depends on what is in these letters. I doubt that he talked much about life in the Navy.

[Teacher Terry]

Have you even opened a letter to see if you can read it. The ink fades over time.

[catherine]

My brother is actually my cousin blood-wise. His mother died in childbirth and his father (my father's brother) died when my brother was 5 from complications of gall bladder surgery. My grandfather dictated that he would live with us, without consulting my mother, who was in the hospital grieving over a stillbirth at the time. His relationship with my parents was rocky at best. He's a wonderful human being and things worked out, but I feel so bad about his childhood.

My other cousin was cleaning out some stuff her mother had kept and she found a letter from my brother's birth-mother , talking about how thrilled she was to be pregnant, and she talked the names she and her husband were considering and it really shows so much of her personality. It was a real find, and my brother was so happy to have gotten it.

Save the letters, IL. Scan them and share them with people who will enjoy them. It keeps your dad alive in a way.