In May of this year, I shared my joy at finding 7 seconds of video of my great grandfather, John Costello. In that post I shared that I have exactly 5 photos of my great grandfather.
Guess what?
That is not the case any longer!!
{Insert major genealogy happy dancing & celebrating right here.}
In July, my sister visited our grandaunt Barbara. Barbara is the widow of Dan Costello. Dan is the son of our great grandfather, John Costello.
Aunt Barbara sent my sister home with a lovely chalk drawing created by John’s wife, that I shared last week. She also sent her home with a small, but very precious, bundle of photographs for me to scan and return.
This photo of Grandpa Costello was among them. My heart is bursting with joy to see Grandpa Costello in – what I am guessing is his living room? – playing his guitar. He didn’t like having his picture taken, so each photo is extra special. Here he is, as a 67 year old man, still playing his guitar. Be still my heart.
❤️
Have you been blessed to have photos shared with you, photos you weren’t expecting to ever see?
ps – Thank you!! for all of the input and advice about my letter collection. I really appreciate each of your comments, emails, and poll answers. Between all of you and some conversations with family, I think I have made a tentative plan. I think. The part I know for sure is that I will not be sharing the letters here. My goal is to be ready to begin sharing them with family in January.
As a side note, my sister talked me through every possible way of sharing, all of the issues to consider – both for those who are deceased and those who are living, plus the time required for each avenue. In all of that discussing, she helped me have an interesting and very valuable a-ha moment. There are letters missing. I know this for sure. There are also letters that have been edited by scissors or permanent marker – by Grandma. That leads us to believe that she definitely destroyed many letters, leaving no trace, and that the ones that remain that were marked “destroy”, were either too special to her to destroy or she changed her mind about their fate. We can’t know for certain, but it has impacted our position on how to handle those letters. One thing all of this has caused me to reflect upon, is what my own wishes are for my personal items like journals and letters. Hopefully I can make my wishes clear so one day my granddaughter will know exactly what I would have wanted her to do.