Remember Who You Were

Remember Who You Were

“Remember who you are!”  I heard this hundreds of times throughout my adolescence as I left home for a date or hanging out with friends.  It was one of my dad’s favorite sayings.  He had such hope for keeping me always on the right track.

Today, I’d like to change it to: Remember who you (they) were.  I realized last week how important this is.

We moved to our condo almost a year and a half ago.  My husband and I felt a need to live closer to our daughter and some of my sisters.

Last week I finally got around to hanging some pictures.  I’m not sure if it was because I didn’t want to put nails in the beautifully painted walls, I felt insecure hanging pictures because my husband used to do it, I didn’t know which pictures I should hang, or if I am just plain lazy. 

I decided the study would be my first room to tackle.   A thought came thundering into my head as I contemplated which of our many pictures should be displayed in this room.  Why not have it a room dedicated to my husband?

 

I selected a few of the many plaques that have been piled on his desk for over a year to hang first.  My husband worked as an engineer for the federal government for thirty years.  The government loves plaques.  I also hung a framed flag that hung over the U.S. capitol on his birthday in 1997, given to him on the day of his retirement.

Also on the wall are an Al Rounds painting of the Salt Lake Temple where we were married, three paintings by our sons, as well as two Robert Duncan paintings which my husband picked out several years ago because they reminded him of his grandpa’s farm.  

On his desk I placed an illustration of my husband that our son drew for him on his 70^th birthday.  Circling his head are many of his favorite expressions.

It was an extremely therapeutic day for me as well as for my husband.  The plaques reminded me of how bright my husband was and how much he enjoyed his engineering career.   I need to remember that he once knew how to do complicated mathematical calculations, when now he sometimes has difficulty figuring out how to fix himself a bowl of cold cereal.  

My husband was surprised when I showed him the plaques illustrating some of his accomplishments.  As we looked at the painting of the temple, he was happy to hear we were married there forty-seven years ago.  Sometimes he forgets we are married.  He has proposed to me many times in the past year.    He loved seeing the pictures of his “grandpa’s" farm and the work of his artist sons.

Remember who you were.    Remember who they were.


I'd love you to comment on what you've done or what you are doing now to remember or help your loved one remember.