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I'm sure each network has a team of people working on the lives of prominent people - world leaders, celebrities, and even local officials - just so they'll be prepared when the time comes.

A good friend of mine, Ed, recently lost his father. When he found out my mother was dying, he told me to start gathering pictures so I could put a slide show together. That was the best piece of advice anyone gave me! He told me I could download the program for f*ree here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx

I got to work immediately because I didn't know how much time I had. Fortunately, I ended up with about four weeks to accomplish the task. Here's what I did:

*Downloaded the software. I found it very simple to use. Of course, I'm one of those people who only reads directions if I can't figure it out on my own. This was my kind of software!

* Started looking through my own digital files for pictures I had taken over the past 4-5 years. This was pretty simple. It was just a matter of importing the pictures into the program.

* Asked other family members to email me with any photos they had. My cousin and a niece were very helpful in coming up with pictures I had never seen before.

* Went through photo albums and scanned photos. This was the part that took the most time because once the photo was scanned, I had to crop. I was sure glad I got started early on this part!

Before it was over, I had about 15 minutes of video which included about 200 photographs. Photos included individual pictures of Mom, along with pictures of her with her children, grandchildren, and siblings.

As I worked on this project, I can't tell you how many times I thought about how my mother would have LOVED looking at a slide show like this of her life! Why in the world hadn't I prepared something like this BEFORE the end of her life?

Now, here I was, seeing pictures of my mother that were new to me. I wanted answers about some of them. Where was it taken? What do you remember about that day? How old were you?

As I imported the pictures, I included whatever information I could come up with on my own. Names of people in the photo, approximate year, clever comments about various poses. She was a real beauty of movie star quality!

Since my mother was a free spirit from Tennessee, I wanted to use Elvis's rendition of "I Did It My Way," to go along with the 200 pictures I had gathered. For a fee of $19.95, I was able to do that, but by the time I figured all that out, it was too late. Paying this extra money also gave me the ability to burn a copy of the slideshow as a DVD, but once I got back home from the funeral, it didn't seem to matter.

I'll have to say that the slideshow was one of the "hits" for the folks back home in Tennessee. We all enjoyed watching my mother's life flash before us because it brought back memories of much happier times in our lives.

I know there are many different programs out there to help you tell the story of your family. It doesn't matter which program you use, or how much money you want to spend.

After we got home, I discovered another way of presenting these photos that would allow me to include the music I wanted at no extra cost. www.onetruemedia.com is a very simple program to use, and since it's online, you don't have to download anything. As long as you have internet access to show it, it's great! One of the great features to this one is that you can send a link to family and friends and they can watch it anytime they want.

I should put a warning label on this project idea, though! Once you get started, it's addictive. Realize that you're probably not going to gather every picture ever taken of that person, and you don't need five different poses of the same thing (unless they're all just adorable in their own way!). Just start with what you've got, and go from there. You can always add or delete photos whenever you want.

Just imagine the possibilities.

*What a great way to review and share your vacation photos!

*What a great gift for someone! Start now and give them the DVD for birthdays and Christmas.

* What a great way to share with family that's not close by.

I'm thinking about making individual slide shows for everyone in my family!

Wouldn't the kids or grandkids love watching a video of themselves?

Gosh, who wouldn't love looking at pictures of themselves and their loved ones!

Share the memories.