Making Memories, Saving Memories
Author: Avital O’Glasser, MD
Keywords: COVID19, parenthood, pandemic, hobbies
I love photo albums. I grew up in a family of photographers that cherished family photos and photo albums. I’ve maintained the habit of keeping photo albums myself, and a large chunk of our family room bookshelves are devoted to them.
I recently spent a weekend catching up on photo albums. I was 20 months behind, and if you do the math, you will realize that the last photo album I made included pictures through December 2019. It was time to catch up on photos from the last 18 months of our lives during the COVID19 pandemic.
It wasn’t easy. Many photos from early 2020 provided a stark contrast between our pre-pandemic life and our pandemic life—the last couple’s trip my husband and I took in January 2020, the last time my kids were on a plane in February 2020, the last selfie with friends at the 2020 ACGME conference (on February 28, 2020—the day the first case of COVID was diagnosed in Oregon), the last dinner-and-theater date night we had…on March 7th, 2020.
In March 2020, when we thought lock down would be an intense few weeks, I took pictures of everything. Everything! I felt so compelled to save it in the moment—almost as if I couldn’t believe what was happening in real time, because so much of it was both unbelievable and a blur.
I photographed every change we made to the house to support two homeschooling kids. Every creative dish we concocted out of what we had in the pantry and chest freezer when grocery delivery services were booking out a week. I screen grabbed GIFs, memes, text message conversations, and emails with critical updates.
I had plenty of excuses to be 20 months behind on catching up on photo albums. I was busy, I was stressed, I could barely keep my eyes open most nights after we put the kids to bed. I also realized it was going to be tough and emotional. Even flipping through the photos on my phone was often tough. But I realized it was also critically important to preserve the early (and middle…and ongoing…) pandemic memories as much as possible. Just because something is tough doesn’t mean we shouldn’t remember it. Indeed, a wise person once said those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. I needed to preserve these family members.
So…I sat down and caught up on photo albums. Into them the memories went. The basement clean up to make learning space for homeschool. The bookshelf with all the various puzzle and logic books for “learning time” because we didn’t know what virtual instruction school would pull together. A screen grab of the email from work declaring mandatory telecommuting. A screen grab of an email from my husband’s wood working guild calling for N95 donations. Signs at our neighborhood small businesses as they pivoted to online shopping and curbside pickup. A collage of the numerous 1000-piece puzzles we completed. My kids wearing hand-sewn masks for the first time. A picture of the first sardine dish we crafted in late March because we raided the emergency food kit—along with a picture of the internet search for “do sardines ever go bad” as they had expired two months prior.
My kids have entered the “stop taking my picture, mommy!” phase, but I think to myself— You’ll want to see this in 10 years, in 5 years, in 1 year! You’re going to want to remember what you did, what we did as a family, to get through this pandemic together, to build our resilience, to discover and nurture new hobbies, and to stay safe. They squealed with delight looking through the photo albums when they arrived. I encourage you to do the same.
That sardine dish has become a family staple. Its creation is cemented in family history, and for the record, we did not get food poisoning that night.
About the Author: Avital O’Glasser, MD, is a hospitalist at Oregon Health & Science University and the editor of the WIMS blog (Twitter: @aoglasser).