Photo once thought Lost brings back Memories of Happy Times

Photo once though lost brings back memories of Happy Times. Click to enlarge.

A ‘Photo once thought Lost brings back Memories of Happy Times’ is an especially appropriate title for today’s post, because the gorgeous young lady pictured in it that’s tucked under my arm is the daughter I lost back in 2002 in the mechanical failure crash of a helicopter she was co-piloting.

The book I wrote about that experience is available right here on this website, but today’s little story is a happy one pulled from its pages where I describe the event that led to this particularly memorable photo.

As I’m sure you can imagine, every single picture I have of my girl is treasured deeply. So when this one resurfaced in an envelope of photos I thought had long been lost, you can equally imagine the joy of memories it brought to this old daddy’s heart in seeing the happiness evident in our embrace and smiling faces that day.

The long and the short of the events leading up to this image were that my nineteen year old daughter was in the process of earning her fixed wing Private Pilot’s license at the time, and as part of her training had to complete a solo flight to an International destination to complete that certification. She chose Juneau Alaska as that destination since it was a flight of only about two hours from her home base airport in Whitehorse Yukon.

What made this flight so special though was the quiet conspiracy that went on behind my back between my wife and her to ensure I too would be on the aircraft with my girl to make that flight together. You can read all the details for yourself in the book if you want, but suffice it to say that the conspiracy which put both of us on the ground together in Juneau Alaska succeeded brilliantly.

It was during those amazing and astoundingly wonderful 24 hours together there that I accosted a complete stranger and asked for this photo to be taken of us. I’ll be eternally grateful I did, because those were hours of supreme happiness during which we talked our hearts out, laughed, chased each other around and utterly reveled in each others company as father and daughter. It was a time of joyous memory to be cherished forever on its own merits even then, let alone within the aftermath of her death as it is now.

I’m grateful beyond the scope of words to have this image resurface into my life again, with its power to bring back the fullness of each moment and increment of joy contained within that experience with my daughter. She was awesome!

You never know what’s going to show up in an old envelope of pictures, but if a photo once thought lost brings back memories of happy times to your heart too for whatever reason, then it’s worth the finding and treasuring of it!