This Week: Various and Sundry Works

Before I had a digital camera, I had a point and shoot film camera like everyone else.  Mine was a Canon Advantix and I used it for various things and invariably never developed the film.  I finally just threw a lot of stuff away because I knew there was nothing very memorable on it anyway, but I kept one roll of film.  I moved it when I changed apartments.  I was always very careful with it and always knew where it was.  It was the roll of film that had four shots from the Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial.

I'm a huge fan of NASA and manned space flight.  It makes my heart soar to think of people exploring space.  I was heartbroken when Columbia fell.  I was at a solo competition when I heard about the shuttle destruction.  I found out in the morning and had to wait all day for the contest to be over before I could get home and watch the news.  The summer before the accident I got to see the commander, Rick Husband, at a concert I was attending in San Antonio.  His daughter was in the honor choir and they announced that one of the songs from the concert would be used as a wake up call on his next mission.  This mission. It was such a happy moment.  My worlds collided in the best way.  All day at the solo contest I kept trying to remember if this was the mission he was on.  This was before I had my always in my pocket iPhone.  As soon as I got in the car I flipped on the news and within minutes they were reading the names and there it was.  

This was also a difficult time because I was living in Houston.  The home of the astronauts.  The home of Johnson Space Center.  The news was constant and it was sad.  A few days after the accident the President came to Houston for a memorial service.  That was the first evening I had time to get away and go down to JSC.  I grabbed my camera, bought some flowers and headed out there.  After I parked and was walking toward the memorial I looked at my camera.  Four shots.  Four!  I took my four shots, paid my respects, shed some tears and was glad I had the chance to have this moment.  I came home and took the film out of the camera and put it in a drawer.  And it stayed in a drawer for six years.  I finally got it developed late last year.  Of the four shots only two came out since it was dusk when I was there.  Here is one of them.  This photo is special to me for so many reasons and brings back so many memories.

Flickr Favorite: Space Shuttle Endeavour by gsusmaniac