Protect Your Fondest Memories

It's happened to quite a few people I know. It's happened to me. My home was burglarized. Ok it's been a year and a half ago, but I am often reminded of how lucky we were and how others fared differently with their precious memories.

When I entered my home and quickly realized something was not right, I began to go room by room to see if things were missing. When I got to my bedroom, I realized my TV was gone. I immediately panicked and ran upstairs praying that my computer was still there. As the officer ahead of me said, "Ma'am, is there supposed to be something in this space on top of your desk," my heart sank.

What was missing from my desk was my computer. Considering I work from home, not only had I lost all of my work, but all of the memories of my children from birth stored electronically on my computer. Or so I thought. A quick tearful phone call to my husband revealed he had hidden the external hard drive to the computer out of sight and reach. I quickly confirmed it was still in it's place and wanted to reach through the phone and hug him as I realized all may not have been lost.

But for others, they are not so lucky. In fact a friend who lives locally lost all of her children's electronic scrapbooks she had been working on for the past few years when her home was burglarized for the third time recently. The mean people took her laptop this time, and with it many memories she cannot get back.

I tear up as I write this post because I know how she must feel, and how she will feel when she is reminded of it upon reading this post.

My point is not to focus on the past and what happened to her, me or others I know. My point in this post is to let everyone know something to try that could preserve years of pictures and work in the event your computer is stolen.

An external hard drive......

Anyone can get one. And I would recommend hiding it up high somewhere completely out of sight and out of reach. You might also consider storing it from time to time outside of your home. Leave it at a friend's home or place it in a deposit box at the bank. Whatever you do, don't naively believe that this will never happen to you. I did. I knew my home being broken in to was a possibility, as it happens in the world most everyday. But I didn't stop to think how I might feel if all of my family's memories were stolen from me.

Go out today and buy an external drive or other way to back up your work. Or, if you want to wait until the snow clears, I think you have that time at least.