Pictures are reminders that this moment will never come again. We are frozen in time for that moment. We will never be here with each other exactly like this again.

Collecting family photos has kept me connected since I left my family of origin so many years ago when I set out on a long adventure and created my own family. Looking at pictures of family members, warts and all, always helped buffer the intense homesickness that I felt, at times, that emphasized being so far from home.

Pictures can be the great pretenders. What one portrays in a photo is not always what is going on or appears...