My, It’s Beautiful

My plan is to rewatch all of the home movies to decide which ones to keep. I know you are upset that we plan to even get rid of some. With over 80 hours of tapes at home, it would be impossible for me to dedicate that much time every year to rewatching them. But if we make a 3 hour highlight reel, I promise I will watch it on your birthday every year.

What is fun about rewatching these videos is the anticipation that the video will have one of my favorite clips, or scenes as I like to call them. One summer, we went to Provincetown for a couple of nights to visit some friends before heading to Chatham. You wanted to film a tour of the house on your $1100 camcorder. And you picked me as the tour guide.

We walked into each room and after you announced the room we were in, I would say “My, It’s Beautiful.” That was my line. So you would say “now this is the living room” and I would say “my! It’s beautiful!” I must have said it at least 12 times. I remember that Provincetown house so well. But I can’t be sure if the memory is strong or if it was strengthened over time by rewatching that video as a kid.

Dad, thank you for taking so many videos. Thank you for making them so funny to watch. I watched them over and over again as a kid. I hope after rewatching each one as an adult, I won’t need them to remember our great family moments. Instead, I’ll watch them because they will make me laugh, they will make me cry, and they will honor the effort you went through to film them, edit them, and save them. It will remind me of all of the great times we had and will break my heart that we won’t have any more great times together. 

Our life together Dad, my, it was beautiful.