Stories

Restoring with Historian

By Rhonda Gardinier

25 years ago, my youngest child was born on the cusp of a 500 Year Ice Storm. I had heard that the 3rd child does not get many photos before I went to the hospital, so I was determined that would not be the case for this baby! I had even asked to have photos taken before we left the house (in the middle of the night) to go to the hospital.


The miracle of birth happened, and we were blessed with a second son. We took photos at the hospital and had our first family photo taken as I was in the wheelchair, ready to leave for home. This baby was going to have photos, and I was going to have family photos this time!

My husband finished off the roll by taking a few photos of the damage from the ice storm, and he left the roll of film on the dashboard, where it "stayed". A few days later as he was driving around, he had an open cup of orange juice in the cupholder. Kerplop! The roll of film had dropped into the juice. With the ice storm disrupting life in our region, the roll of film was the least of his worries.

A few months later, I asked about the film and learned what had happened to it. As I sent off several rolls of film for development, I was really hopeful that the baby photos would be okay. I even let the developing company know what had happened to the roll of film. Unfortunately, the hospital photos were the ones most damaged by the orange juice. I was just sick about what had happened to the baby pictures, but no one else had a better photo, so I still used them in my photo albums.

Recently I was on a virtual crop (where we scrapbook), and the gals were showing me what they were able to do with FOREVER Historian software. I immediately thought of this photo and asked about it - could it be restored? My friend, Melode, told me to scan it and send it to her right away…so I did. In about an hour and a half, I broke down in tears of joy.

Original photo with damage.

Photo restored with Historian.

I have NEVER been able to see the faces of my family in this photo. Melode did some general editing, gave me a new bouquet of flowers on my lap to cover the messed-up sweater, and replaced the head of my baby with a different, similar photo of him (from a roll of film that had not been damaged).

My family album now has the restored photo in the place of the damaged one. And when I next see my 25-year-old son's photo album, I have a replacement photo for his book too!

I am so grateful to my friend and, of course, to Historian for making this possible. I have a HUGE smile whenever I see or think about the latest version of this photo that captured this one very special moment. And after a 15-year hiatus from scrapbooking, I am again obsessed with getting photos into places where the memories and the stories of our family can be told and shared.

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