Deirdre Margaret Lauranne Crane was born in 1965 and died in 1991 of breast cancer. She was the second daughter of my sister Mary Crane and like me, Derry was a registered nurse.
With a life that short, there can be no significant accumulation of memorabilia or letters or writings, but there can, in the present era, be pictures. Unlike the story of Dennis Rivett, Derry's story could be illustrated with pictures from every year, nearly every MONTH of her life. The pictures could not only show the evolution of the baby to the child to the young woman; they could also show in some small measure her personality.
I gathered pictures of Derry from parents and siblings and the extended family, and sorted them into years, looking for representative pictures for all the years of her life. Her mother Mary Hinde Crane and her sister Shauna Crane drafted short paragraphs about each chosen picture - perhaps a hundred of them - to help the pictures to bring her personality into view.
This process generated many memories, often far beyond what was needed to explain the pictures. It was a sad time, and yet a happy time, remembering Derry.
When we think about and talk about our lost ones, we keep their memory alive.
Status: the pictures have been chosen, the paragraphs drafted. Time and effort and skill are needed to get the pictures and stories into the appropriate juxtaposition ready to be printed. The assistance of family members with the necessary skills will be called on to bring this project to fruition. It is unlikely that this project will be completed in 2008. I am hoping for mid-2009.