Photo albums. They hold memories of the past as well as memories to come in the future. Photo albums have always meant something to me and my family, my mom’s side and my dad’s side. I never got to really meet my grandmothers of both my parents, so the only thing I have, and my other siblings have are pictures. Pictures tell the stories of my family that we may not completely remember. They are something that my mom especially holds close to her heart. She gets to see her mother again in these pictures and remembers who she was and how much she meant to people. Seeing my grandmother in those photos makes me happy, because I get to see the women my mother compares me to. I have a lot of siblings (9 to be exact), and we all have individual and/or shared photo albums that my mom and dad put all of our pictures in. In those, I get to see pictures of my sister that I never really got to meet. I know she is older now and she doesn’t look like that anymore, but that was her. I get to see life before me. Life when it was easier. Life when I didn’t know racism or hate. Photo albums is something that will always bring my family together.  We get to remember those we lost, and fill the spaces of those to come.  

– Sarah Gardner

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more