TBT: CREATIVE MEMORIES SAVE MEMORIES...

TBT:  For many of us who scrapbook the name Creative Memories may ring a bell.  I remember attending my first scrapbooking party where I was introduced to the product line many moons ago. It was costly but guarantee of non yellowing with acid-free paper sold me and obviously many others.  

Apparently the parent company saw $425 million in retail sales in '04 but then came the competition and Creative Memories couldn't really compete as I discovered they filed for Chapter 11 in 2013 and became the bankruptcy with the largest debt in the Twin Cities. It did get rebought BTW. Hold on, the story's coming...

Well, my friend Sue was digitizing her photos and decided I should inherit her Creative Memories album covers. She had a lot of them. 

I finally started the search for pages and page protectors a couple weeks ago... Not having much luck on line, I decided to contact Jamie, whom I met as a Creative Memories rep when she was a college student and I first moved here.  We are still in contact through FB even though she lives across the state now. After messaging her and explaining I had inherited these album cover sets from "a" friend, she shared she hadn't touched scrapbooking since she became a Mom (3 kids ago) and gave me some answers as to size variations and some ideas.  It was super kind of her to take the time and even research the web for me.

Then, out of the blue she added, "Your tribute to Sue this week was beautiful. She was a good friend of my mom's from years ago. She really helped my mom through the grieving process after my brother died from cancer years ago." Besides welling up as I am now, I replied, "These album covers were hers."*

It's funny how scrapbooks save memories.  I really wish I could call Sue and tell her... 

* There's an addendum Jamie added after reading this entry.Read on in Jamie's words: "....to bring it even more full circle...Sue wrote an article about me in Coulee Region Women magazine years ago. I had spent a year interviewing my grandpa from his unique childhood experiences of growing up in Germany during WW2 and coming to the USA. It was fascinating to learn so much history about my family and see all the old pictures. Sue loved hearing about it and just had to write an article. Now that he is gone I am so thankful that I have that piece of family history to share with my own kids."


Here's the link to Sue's tribute in case you missed it:SUE