Taped back

In my garage I have a few boxes of Stephanie's and in one of the boxes was this picture of us as kids. Stephanie is the taller one on the left. I have been keeping this picture on my desk, not sure where to put it yet. And every time I sit at my desk I look at it. I can't really remember getting this picture taken, I was about 5 or 6. But I do remember the yellow dresses. I think of how my mom probably took great care to coordinate our outfits and to put our hair up in matching barrettes. She was probably thrilled to get this picture, both of us looking at the camera and smiling.

A few weekends ago Stephanie's girls were spending the night and I thought I would show them the picture. They are about the same age apart as Stephanie and I were. I handed the picture to one and right away the other one wanted to look at. And in their excitement to grab at the picture and look at it, it ripped. Immediately Reghan, her youngest, starting crying. I felt awful. I wasn't sure if she was crying because I said 'Oh no!' or if she was crying because the picture was ripped. Either way, she was upset and I couldn't calm her down. So finally I just asked her if she wanted me to fix the picture. She stopped crying and said yes. I went and grabbed my tape and we sat down to put it back together. Riley, in typical 5 year old wisdom, said 'you can't fix it'. To which I said, 'I know, but we can tape it back and try to fix it'. Again she said 'but you can't put it back together, you can't fix it'. So I whispered 'I know, but let's act like we can to make Reghan happy'. She agreed, so we tapped it back together. It did make Reghan happy and actually it made me feel better too. At first I was upset that it was ripped. It felt like another part of Stephanie being torn away. But now that I look at it I feel like it fits. I can still look at that picture and have those memories of her. And even though it's completely not fixed I still see two happy sisters.