I found that purging to both be tough and helpful. I did scan in all the photos that I had and made them available to both my now ex and the kids. I believe that my ex didn't have herself organized enough to grab the digital copies but I put all the physical ones in to boxes for her to pick up - which took her about 6 months.
I was "fortunate" in that I did all the scanning while still enduring in-house separation and the associated stress and angst. That meant that I did get to "keep" everything I wanted.
I kept those I loved which did not include any with her and adapted the the multi-picture frames like my daughter's wedding and a family trip to Disney when they were young replacing the pictures of my ex with ones of the kids. If you were to talk in to my house you would imagine that I created those two wonderful people all on my own.
It was very tough at times though. I sat and wept for quite a long time after packing the wedding photo from my home office desk that had sat there for nearly 30 years.
About 6 months or so after she left and it was clear that she wasn't coming back, I went through my own digital copies and removed all the ones from our trip to Mexico where she dropped the bomb on me and all the ones of just her family. The kids had their copies by that point.
It wasn't easy but it did help me let go.
On BD H52, W50 T27, M26 S21, D23 BD-9-Mar-16 D-15-Jan-18 Final-19-Apr-18 I am a storyteller. The story may do you no good. But a story is never for the listener. It is always for the one who tells
