Saying Goodbye to My Home but Preserving My Best Memories With Photo Scanning

Saying goodbye to one's home can be a difficult experience for anyone, but it can be especially challenging for older people. For many, their home is where they have raised a family, created memories, and built a life.

Our team at ReLOVE were particularly touched by the story of one of our clients named Grace, who very kindly agreed to share her story for our blog.

The Story of Grace

Grace had lived in her home in Winchester for over 60 years. She moved into the house with her husband after getting married. They loved the place so much that it never crossed their minds to move anywhere else.

However, as Grace got older, after losing her beloved husband, and after her grown-up children moved out to make their own life, and following a nasty fall, it made sense for Grace to move to a care home. She didn't want to leave her home but knew she couldn't live alone.

Grace's children helped her pack up her belongings, but they all scratched their heads over what to do with the hundreds of family photographs and slides accumulated in the attic over the years. Neither of her children had room for them in their homes, but something had to be done.

There were even photographs of Grace's parents, aunts, uncles and other close family members that had long since passed, that Grace's grandchildren never knew. Grace didn't want to throw them away, as it was too emotional for her to part with such treasured memories of her family.

Grace had started to make friends with some of the other residents in her care home, one of which sparked an idea in her mind. After wondering what to do with her old photographs, her new friend told her she had the same problem and had many of her photos digitally scanned. Grace then had the idea of making a digital photo album so that her grandchildren would have a record of her and the great-grandparents they never had the chance to meet.

With the help of Grace's eldest son, Jonathan, she read online about the services offered by ReLOVE and chose our Essentials photo scanning service, which allowed her to work at her own pace. It took a while for Grace to sort through the hundreds of paper photographs and boxes of slides in the attic and pick out those she wanted to save. But it proved to be a fascinating project for her to do with the help of her eldest son and two of her grandchildren.

It was also an emotional rollercoaster for Grace. Looking through many long-forgotten snaps of her parents, aunts, uncles and cousins that were a big part of her life growing up left her with some bittersweet memories, but she was glad to have had the opportunity to do it.

Grace thanked us for providing her with such excellent service and told us she could not believe how good her scanned photos looked – they were even better than the original paper photographs and slides she gave us!