I made this as the intro into a book I've made of Heritage Pages for my Mom's 97th birthday in July. The journaling in the book reads:

July 10, 2008

To my Momma on her birthday.

What do you give a person who has seen the sun rise and set for 97 years? I thought about this for a long time and finally decided I would share the gift you gave me. The gift of my Heritage, the gift of our Family, the gift of having you as my Mother. What a wonderful gift that was. I have truly enjoyed creating the pages bound here. Recapturing the past with your help. Phone conversations and questions tugging at little parts of your memory helping me fill in the blanks about many people I only knew from conversations of generations before me. It’s been fun to hear your stories, to hear your remembrances of dates and times, people and places. Through you these photos will be passed forward to generations we have yet to meet. They will know their ancestors through your memories and my pages. What a precious gift to pass forward. Enjoy the book, enjoy the memories. With all my love, Patti