Goodfellows52: Recovered family movie triggers trail of tears

Goodfellows52: Recovered family movie triggers trail of tears: ye AUBURN — Trails to our parents’ distant past can often be found in a damp basements and cluttered closets of their homes...

Recovered family movie triggers trail of tears

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AUBURN — Trails to our parents’ distant past can often be found in damp basements and cluttered closets of their homes.

If you follow these disappearing paths, sometimes you get lucky and unearth something they never told you about from their past.

When my father died, the depressing obligation of cleaning out his home fell to his offspring.

Rummaging through my parents’ personal belongings made me feel like a cat burglar trying to get his hands on jewelry and credit cards. The grief you are feeling rises exponentially
when you throw out or donate your parents’ personal items.

There were several boxes stuffed with pictures of their lives frozen in black-and-white and color stills.

I became the designated the caretaker of our family’s photographs. There were hundreds of photos of McClure Street, the Blizzard of 1978, Waterford, Penn., and the Tall Ships sailing into Boston during the nation’s bicentennial in July 1976. 

We recorded the events of our lives with an old Polaroid camera.

When I began sifting through the pictures, we discovered about 20 feet of eight-millimeter film in a small box. My mother’s uncle, Rocco Conte, shot the film in 1958. It was a mystery for my son and me, but there it was, sitting in a box in my parents’ home for 58 years.

We tried to see what was on the reel, but it was impossible to make out all the images. A couple of weeks ago, I suggested we leave it to the professionals and we took it to a business where they transfer millimeter film to DVD.

After all, who still owns a projector! 

Photo Finish transferred the film to DVD in just two weeks. 

We picked up four copies, rushed home and shoved one of the discs into the DVD player.

The 2:59 second film was footage of their 1958 wedding in living color. I sat still, my eyes widened before they filled with a stream of tears. My wife and I watched it over and over, and through our watery eyes, we marveled at the silent, color images of the wedding. 

It was a cinematic glimpse of my Italian heritage and the relatives and friends who are no longer here.

Why didn't they tell us there was film! I could have made this for them a decade ago.

It took three minutes to transform me into an emotional train wreck and resurrect the grief I felt when I buried my dad with full military honors in November 2014.

I watched my smiling mom and her pristine white dress enter the church. Our young and handsome Italian father had a wide grin on his face as the crowd began throwing rice at the newlyweds.

The film was like a silent movie and the key actors were my mom and dad. I saw my grandmother, my uncle Rock, Carol and other people who have passed into eternity.

Watching those long lost images of the their past made me realize their absence in our lives still hurts like hell.

Those feelings of loss never go away and watching them drive away in the film to a honeymoon in Canada snapped my heavy heart in two.

But those images of my parents were worth a good cry and it won’t be the last time I shed a tear when I watch this must-see rare film of my parents in the prime of their lives.