Strangers in the Box
Pamela A. Harazim
©1997


Come, look with me inside this drawer,
In this box I've often seen,
At the pictures, black and white,
Faces proud, still, serene.

I wish I knew the people,
These strangers in the box,
Their names and all their memories
Are lost among my socks.

I wonder what their lives were like.
How did they spend their days?
What about their special times?
I'll never know their ways.

If only someone had taken time
To tell who, what, where, when,
These faces of my heritage
Would come to life again.

Could this become the fate
Of the pictures we take today?
The faces and the memories
Someday to be tossed away?

Make time to save your pictures,
Seize the opportunity when it knocks,
Or someday you and yours could be
The strangers in the box.

That is a fantastic poem Chellin and so true everyone should take heed and read it.
That is such a poem of insight, did she write anymore?
Love as always
Daz
xxx

I dont know Daz, I will have a look around but here is another great poem, author unknown.

THE DASH


I read of a man who stood to speak
at the funeral of his friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
from the beginning - to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birth
and spoke of the second with tears,
but he said that what mattered most of all
was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time
that she spent alive on earth,
and now only those who loved her know
what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own;
the cars, the house, the cash.
What matters is how we live and love
and how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard,
are there things you'd like to change?
For you never know how much time is left.
(You could be at "dash mid-range.")

If we could just slow down enough
to consider what's true and real,
and always try to understand
the way other people feel.

And...be less quick to anger,
show appreciation more
and love the people in our lives
like we've never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect,
and more often wear a smile,
remembering that this special dash
might only last a little while.

So, when your eulogy is being read
with your life's actions to rehash.
would you be pleased with the things they say
about how you spent your dash?

-Source unknown

Chellin .. two very good poems and very true ..although when I have researched a family .. I feel as though I know them and almost as though I have met them .. is it because we get so involved with these families that we feel like that?

I have had tears in my eyes sometime when I have read a death certificate of a young baby .. felt sad for the parents, some families have lost a number of children .. I must get too involved lol .. I need to get out more!!!

Matty

I feel the same Mattycat, the more I know the more I want to know, its a real addiction. I feel like I really know them, sounds silly but very true. It must be in the blood and in the genes, carried on through all the generations.

Oh God I will be crying soon lol, I so want to meet them all, maybe one day eh

Chellin

Do you talk to them? .. if I am stuck .. I will say "Susannah where and when did you die?" .....

Yellow van with sirens on it's way ...............

Mad as that may seem .. once I did find a certificate shortly after a conversation like that .. yes van definitely on it's way

No your not mad Mattycat. I do that all the time. Its like when I couldnt find my great great grandmother and then I got this email from New Zealand saying she went there and married again. I kept saying where are you, give me a hint??? lol

The vans coming for me too lol


Chellin

Yes two wonderful poems chellin, & like both you and mattycat, I've shed tears too when I've discovered events in my ancestors' lives. The most tear-jerking for me, and my mum - was when one day last Summer we discovered my gr.gr grandad's gravestone at Treales Parish Churchyard, near Kirkham.

I'd gone out for a drive with my mum & dad & I had this "bee in my bonnet" that I wanted to go to Treales & look in the graveyard for our Gardners.

Against all odds - which I'll not go into - I was urged, I just know it - that we had to go to Treales that day. Well we did find our Gardner family gravestone - but also in front of it - a gravestone that we'd never believed we would ever find.

This is the grave of my g.g.grandad William Hughes (husband of Margaret Gardner) who we had, until then believed had died at sea - gone down with his ship so the story went (he was a Merchant Seaman). But because of finding the grave - since then - we know that there was a shippping crisis & he probably did go down with his ship - but was rescued - but became ill & died 6 months later at home, age only 30, in 1875. The gravestone is wonderful and has the Merchant Navy Insignia inscribed on it. Since then have got his Death Certificate from Preston Reg Office. (had spent years looking for this in the Deaths at Sea indexes!!)

Last week, me & my mum & dad were reading through some of the other poems you've posted on here - mattycat and chellin. There is one - I think it might be "Dear Ancestor" - where it talks about finding a gravestone. That reminded us of the day we discovered William's grave. That poem is wonderful too.

Carole

Hi all.
Another great poem Chellin. What an inspired thought, the dash between the dates. I wish i'd thought of that one.
Your all right about feeling close. Remember baby Jane Arnold Cas. I knew I couldn't go on until I had found what had happened to her. I'd be sat in front of the computer saying "come on Baby Jane, where are you" and then I found the record of her death. I was very sad but happy at the same time. It was as though by finding it that her very short life was remembered, that she mattered. I feel a poem coming on....lol
Love to all
Daz
xxx

Hiya Daz,

Yes I do remember when you were trying to find out about baby Jane, the sister of our great-great Elijah Arnold, & what had happened to her - then you found her death record. I know what you mean about every one of our ancestors & their relatives mattered - and all should be remembered.

Want to write up our Arnold family history of Macclesfield soon Daz - but will need to check with you about some of the research you've done - about baby Jane & their mother who we know had died by the time Elijah was 5 years old (on the 1851 Census),

Talk again soon - going to catch up with your other most recent posts now Daz.

Cas
xx

Strangers in a box ... after a time no longer strangers, they become people you know and in time they are your family .. almost as though you have met them .. strange isn't it ..