Why so passionate about memories, you may ask?
Here's how it all started...
You know that saying: out of sight, out of mind?
Back in 1991, on a flight in one of the bombers that won the Allies the war, I got the power of memories.
My dad learned of these flying museums on tour and said we should go
We were two of the 10 aboard the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.
It was loud, memorable, and incredible.
Every single stop we flew to, WWII veterans came with their kids and their grandkids.
And there'd be this incredible retelling across generations of such a loaded past...
2-hour missions with a 20 percent chance of coming back...
low-level supply drops to the French resistance...
deadly flak that struck without warning...
Cindy, Jack & family at a Wings of Freedom Tour stop
Stop on the Wings of Freedom Tour from the top
of Flying Fortress B-17 "9-0-9" photo credit to Jim Harley
Unless something keeps them alive, memories go away
What struck me most was that many times, their families were hearing these precious stories for the first time.
And dad was so fierce about not letting their memory go away.
He was a photographer and took their picture.
But also, afterward, we'd call mom long-distance to tell her. (I guess she lived vicariously through us on our trip.)
He'd dictate their story to mom, and she'd type them.
I guess dad knew how powerful capturing a moment in time can be and how priceless building bridges to it for the generations to come.
And that instilled in me the power of preserving stories, images, and capturing what matters.
Hi, I'm Cindy Brooke, the founder of Capture What Matters.
Looking back, it was the stories passed on from one generation to the next near the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress that got me into the digital preservation industry.
For over 70 years, my family's company, Brooke International, has supplied printing manufacturers and retailers with digital archiving and photo cutting production equipment, including wholesale puzzles.
Then along came COVID-19, and supply chains from China exploded into 6-month delays.
And we decided there was something we could do to cut that delay time for you. We could make your bespoke puzzle and ship it.
If you'll bring the picture.
They’re not for behind velvet ropes.
Your memories, that is.
How you housetrained your helpless, stubborn first puppy.
Last year’s holiday, when you rented dirt bikes through the desert and the girls loved it.
Your children’s first summer camp, when they came back with lice.
That trip you took to the Grand Canyon with your mother.
You want to hold on to them, remember, and share. That’s why you took the picture in the first place.
You might print and frame it. Or visit it once a year in the photo album. Or swipe through it in meetings. Maybe even post it on Facebook?
We believe you can do better than look at your memory..
You can hold it in your hand and piece it together again.
And if you do it with your gang, your memory can even give you a whole new memory.
A word of caution:
Please don't get discouraged if they roll their eyes -
teenagers might - and say something like "dad, you know nothing," or "mom, it's too hard."
Secretly, they love it. For the same reasons you do.
Just pick the picture.
