Advice from my aunt who was 103 years old.

What do you think has kept you going for 103 years? "I have kept my mouth shut and minded my own business."

Nancy, my niece, and I have been going through all of the old pictures and written messages from the late 1700s early 1800s and putting together an album.  The time line is easy to follow thanks to many astute memory keepers on my mother's side of the family.  (Dad's side, not so much.) We were able to prove our English linage and also that we were related to Robert E. Lee. Nancy and her husband stayed two days and nights and we enjoyed their company to no end.  Tomorrow they leave and the album, as far as we are concerned, is finished.  Nancy gets it after I am gone and then her daughter, Staci, has asked for it.  We had some spooky pictures of mean (looking) relatives and turned their pictures over to avert any hexes that might be lurking. No one smiled in the early pictures, not even a twinkle in the  eye.  My favorite relative so far is Georgia Belle.  She wrote postcards to her family weekly and we have them.  It is fun to read the messages although pencil is not the vehicle for keeping messages for long. Some that we wanted to read were very light and we had lamps and glasses and magnifiers galore going on in order to make things out. Two batches of mixed berry cobbler kept us going with visitors making an appearance during the mess displayed all over the library table. Done is done and we move on tomorrow. I now have seven albums of pictures and the shots keep rolling in. Not just Mother's side of the family, that's just one of the seven albums. I am sure some day the pictures will be enjoyed by the family and by those who join our tribe.