For my husband and me, 2006 was a big turning point in our lives. A few weeks after we moved his mom out of her own house and in with her sister’s family, she died after a house fire.
All of her most prized photos and memorabilia were lost along with her that day, but because we had just cleared out her house, my husband and I had brought home many of her photo albums and old canisters of film. 
Before the fire we intended to transfer and preserve the photos and old home movies for her upcoming birthday and for Christmas. After her death, we just couldn’t bear to go through the huge plastic container of her snapshots and film.
All these years later my husband and I are motivated to get this task done. The memories have changed from extreme sadness to bittersweet and our grief mellowed.
Working with YesVideo as one of their Storytellers has been a real pleasure for me. It’s easy to talk about an excellent service that has brought my family more than just happiness—it’s given me back moments with Ruby.
I sent in five random old film canisters. I didn’t know what was recorded on four of them, but I had high hopes for one marked “Christmas ‘73”.
We were so pleased with what we got back—my late in-laws in their 30s celebrating with Christmas with my husband as a toddler. Another was of the grand opening of their hardware store in Sulphur, Louisiana. You could tell it was a big deal because they hired a clown and a radio station dj.
Giving the transferred movies to my husband made me so proud. He’s not overly emotional or sentimental, but I could tell how thrilled he was to see his parents (younger than we are now) and long-forgotten places and people.
If you have old VHS or 8 millimeter home movies, consider transferring them as part of your holiday present to yourself or as a gift for your older relatives. I know when I go home for Christmas, I’m going to raid a few closets at my Mom’s house and see if I can come up with our own home movies that are gathering dust.
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You may never have to recover after a house fire, but if your memories are in a shoebox in the back of a closet, you don’t even know what you are missing out on.
I was hoping you would have shown us a few old pictures! And yes…we have a box of old VHS tapes somewhere in the garage. This is definitely something that should be preserved!
I recently went through old video from my Wacktress (waiter/actress) days and just managed to get them off of mini-DVs and into my computer. Time is of the essence with these things.
Awwwww I’m so sorry about your MIL, but happy to hear that you were able to preserve wonderful memories. What a great reminder to finally “do something” with my videos and pictures – I have some free time next week.