Dear Debbie,

Once I had a dream.
That dream was to one day go back to Manchester and see the house that my family had called home.
It was also the place I was born 42 years ago.
It took us a long time but we were finally able to travel with our family to England.
I had seen photos of Redscar Walk, but to finally be here was an experience to remember.

I got out the car that day and started to walk down the path.
I knew if I could only get a photo of number 13, I would be satisfied.
So as I tried to take that photo without anyone noticing,
the door opened and there was the lady of the house.
That lady was you.

I knew I had to explain what I was doing so I walked up your pathway
and told you that I used to live here and that I was born in the main bedroom.
You looked quite sceptical and really I couldn’t blame you.
I chatted with you for a minute and then my Uncle came to join us.
He started talking about the people that used to live in the surrounding houses and it put your mind at rest.
We continued to talk for a while and then I asked if I could have a photo taken with you.
You didn’t mind at all and as I turned to leave you asked if I wanted to go upstairs
and see the bedroom my Mum had given birth to me in.
I followed you upstairs and by the time I got into that room I had a tear in my eye.
You gave me a hug, (a complete stranger)
Then I walked to the window. I was looking at the view my mother would have seen
while she was holding me in her arms.
My daughter was down on the path and she took a photo of me.
We walked back down the stairs and after another hug I said goodbye.

Thanks to you and your Random Act of Kindness you changed that day into something special for me.
My Mother died when I was only 16 and she used to talk to me about Redscar Walk.
I'm quite sure that that day my Mother had a hand in me being in the right place at the right time
and meeting a most fabulous women.
You took me at face value and welcomed me into your home.

Thank You
I wish you a life time of much Love and Happiness.

Regards your friend
Claire

This was the letter I had sent to Debbie, I also included it in my Photobook. It was a very trying time while making my photobook. I wasent quite sure if I should include this letter or not. It was like laying my heart on the table because I knew lots of people in the family would be seeing this book. I ended up including it with all the photos to match because this was really an important and special time for me and my family. My photo book ended up being 146 pages long and included all of our special memories for my children for years to come. It took me a good month to finish and I was uncerntain wheather I was ready to order because I kept going back to it and changing things. Once ordered it was a relief. Now Im into my third day of waiting for it. Hurry up and get here....

I have been working on it since February, scanning old photos to use from my pre-digital era and going through 20,000 odd photos in my digital archive...stored since 2003.

I am making the album in secret, which is i really hard to do, as we have busy lives, jobs and kids to take care of. So i am resorting to having to create the album during my lunch hour at work, when I am away for work and in moments at home when she is out for the evening. These moments are rare and my work mates think i am strange when i say i have to go home early after dinner because i have to work on the album...i work in the alcohol industry so you can see my point!

Anyway, apart from having to keep this a secret, which i am not good at, the worst thing is that i cant share the emotions i am feeling when i look through all the photos. I see photos from our wedding, holidays, house renovations, pets, childrens births and family celebrations and they bring back such wonderful memories that i want to talk about with her, but i cant and i am absolutely busting. I have almost blown it a few times when i have gone to say "oh remember that time" or "i was looking through the photos from that party that night"...i cant wait to show her the album on our weekend away, we will relive the precious memories over and over again...laugh, cry and fall in love all over again - corny, i know, but true!

So thats my Albumworks story, its still going...slowly, secretively and giving me a lot of pleasure.

Cheers

Chris

Uncle James’ Big Truck

My five year old grandson is mildly autistic, and he was having trouble putting sentences together.

I thought it would be great if he had a personalised book to help him improve his speech. My brother James drives a brand new Western Star truck and my grandson, also called James, just loves big trucks. So I had the perfect subject – Uncle James’ Big Truck.

I took my grandson to see Uncle James’ big truck one Sunday afternoon with camera in hand. We had a great time taking photos of James exploring the truck. I decided the albumworks 21 x 21 softcover would be the most suitable size book for our purpose. The photos turned out well and James is very photogenic. So I had the perfect tools to make a great story.

When the completed book arrived in the post I was blown away by the finished product. I couldn’t wait to present the book to my darling grandson. Well, his big eyes lit up with amazement and this book has become his constant companion. He can now read every word and his speech has soared ahead.

I can honestly say the book was a life changing experience for little James. His teachers and therapists are 'over the moon' with his progress. I have made other books for him, but none have come close to Uncle James’ Big Truck!

Thank you albumworks for your great product and service. You have made one little boy very happy!

Nannie.

I wanted to send a gift to her recently to express my feelings, so i send a book, which contained historical family pictures, aswell as recent taken pictures, especially for her.

Not only was she happy and overwhelmed with the book, it opened both our eyes to the fact we were still in love, and that distance was no object nor barrier (me resident in Australia and her in the UK).

To date we are still in love, and all is going well towards a full and wonderful reconciliation, all triggered by the Albumworks book.

Thankyou
x

and finally (drumroll please...)

I created a storybook for my husband's birthday consisting of all the weird and wonderful names he gives her (Velvet, Orange, Snowman, Little Chicken) and a matching picture for each name. The book was the first present my little girl ever gave her dad - and he's been reading 'her' story to her every day since she gave him the book, which was on Tuesday just gone.

Three days later (yesterday) our laptop was mugged, and we now have no photos of the first 8 months of little Keira's life, except for the ones in our Albumworks photobook. This book is now the most precious item we have, as it has some of those priceless moments in there we captured because we never wanted to forget.

I thank my lucky stars that I have at least this book, and looking through it will be, though bitter sweet, forever special as it is all we have.

Thankyou Albumworks.

Cheers,

Kris