Then we had children and suddenly her loss had a huge impact on me and to the people that meant the most to me in the world, my children. They would never hear stories about their father in a way that only a mother could tell, no one could even tell them at what time of day their father was born, something my kids find very interesting. To make matters worse she had never got around to putting all those family pictures into albums (just like most people, we all think we will have time). I am sure she didn't expect to die at forty eight years old. She had put all the pictures in an old shoe box -- I mean a real shoe box -- not an acid-free archival shoe box. After her death no one was aware of the contents of the shoe box and it was misplaced and after a few moves it simply disappeared.

My husband's earliest photo is his grade one class picture, so when everyone asked who the kids looked like, I had many baby pictures and he had none. This made him adamant that we find the safest and best way to preserve our own children's journey through life. That meant the best albums and containers for our children's mementos.

I searched high and low and could never find what I wanted. When I met Victoria and found out that she was an archivist I was hopeful that finally someone would be able to show me the right way to preserve my children's journey through life. For example, one thing that I did have of my husbands was a scrapbook of his junior hockey career, which his mother had started to put together for him. Through my and Victoria's research I now have a personalized beautiful leather album that will preserve his junior hockey career and the time and effort his mother had put into his scrapbook (which was quickly deteriorating). Now, my children have something of their father's past that I know will stand the test of time, giving my children and theirs the most precious gift of family history.

My children have a wonderful Nana and a very special Nonna. However, they still have questions about their paternal grandmother, for example our treasured recipe album came to be because of my daughter and a recipe she found (in her grandmother's handwriting). But that is another story for another day. I hope to share many stories with you through this sharing stories page and hope you feel free to share your stories as well. Please enter your family stories in our guest book so that we can share them with others.

Vittoria