Hi Charles,
Just an update on the process to this point. I obviously outsmarted myself and had downloaded Mavericks and El Capitan which I found in my App Store Purchases, I am currently using El Capitan and my photos are now safely saved in the Photos folder. I shall wait a little while before proceeding to High Sierra, although I have downloaded it to be ready.
However, one big problem connected to the upgrading is that I am now unable to open my iTunes, I constantly get a message telling me that "iTunes is being updated" when I click on the icon, do you have any idea how I can solve that? I did get a message purporting to be from Apple saying they had locked my account and to sign in to my account, it was in my "Junk" folder so I just deleted it. Could you advise on how to solve this since I seem unable to sign in through the App Store.
I have to say this has been a real exercise for my brain and I am thankful I attended so many VMUG meetings over the many years I have been a Member before I left Victoria, it has helped a lot. Also thankful I did a check of my Trash before emptying it since it had dumped a lot of things that I had no intention of not keeping so had to spend time dragging them back where they had originally been. Didn't expect that. Thanks. Kaye