This week, the cottage on our property caught fire and burned down. My wife was out of town. We do not know what caused it.
There was nothing of great economic value in it, but there was something of great personal value: all of our family photographs. Over 30 years of memories were turned into ashes.
It gets worse. The negatives were filed with the photos. My wife had taken the photos and the negatives to the cottage to sort them. There is no way to get back those memories. The permanence of the loss is painful.
On TV news shows, when women who have just lost their homes to a fire or a flood are interviewed, they often lament the loss of their photo albums. This is a common problem. People think, "It won't happen to me." But it can.
I have three suggestions. First, convert your photos to digital images with a scanner. Scanners are cheap: under $100.
Second, store these digital images in two formats: on a CD- ROM and on a website where you can uplink photos. Here is a list of free image storage sites:
Third, never keep the negatives in the same building as the photos. It's too risky.
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