The Saga of a "Precious Package"

The saga of the "precious package" actually began in 2004 after my daughter, Jennifer's passing. 

Among the few things that she left, photos were so precious to me that I saved them to give to
her son, Christopher, who was 5 1/2 at the time.

When moving to Mexico, they traveled in the car with me so as not to get lost in the shuffle.
Since then they have been in a special place.

Once I asked Christopher if he would like for me to give him the photos along with other items
that had belonged to his mother.  He said to wait and save them until he was out on his own so
nothing would happen to them.  I did, obviously.

This is the year that Christopher was turning 18!  In July the items came out of their special place
and planning began to put the photos in a special album so they were all together in a way that
would be easy for Chris to take them with him when he went off to college or whatever.

The work on the album began in August so I would have it ready to mail to him before his
birthday on September 4th.

Finished, I took the album to my mail service here in San Miguel to send the box UPS so I would have a tracking number.  I did not want this precious package to get lost and not arrive.  I paid and left the package after being assured that it would leave that day at about noon on August 24th.  There were a lot of people
crammed into this little office where I pick up or mail things so I left it with a person who I trusted to make sure it would go out that day.  At the time I had no worries.

The following Monday I went by to get the Tracking number.  Imagine my dismay when I was told it did not
go UPS but rather was taken to the border and the "girls in Laredo" would be sending it out on Tuesday.
I again vigorously asked that it be sent UPS.  Upon calling the next day I was told it went out regular mail
but would be in Houston no later then Friday, September 3rd.  Needless to say, no package on the 3rd or the 4th or to this day.

Calling every day to check to see if they, the mail service, had found the package in Laredo or San Miguel, it was apparent after my last phone call with the owner on September 14th - three weeks later - that something that I had protected for all these years is gone. 

To tell you that I have had many sleepless nights and a few times of crying over this would be an understatement.  I'm crushed for my grandson who received no gift on his birthday.  But, more then that,
the fact that the photos of him and all the special photos of he and his mother are gone.  Poof.

Luckily I did photograph the pages of the book before mailing it, but of course, I should have scanned each photo as well.  Unfortunately it did not happen.

Here are the photos.  Many have very special meaning as well as being a photograph.  When Christopher
looks at these, I want to be able to tell him the circumstances of the photos when he was little, little.  No,
this method is not ideal but at least there is this.

This was the FIRST time in all these years in San Miguel that I mailed a package North.  I've always given things like this to someone who was responsible, that I knew well and knew they would make sure the package was mailed properly.  My granddaughters, Jessica and Hannah received their albums on their eighteenth birthday because of the kindness of friends.  The lesson I've learned from this is - always depend on the kindness of friends and not the mail service in San Miguel.  Of course I still wonder where this lost "precious package" is sitting.