Save Your Precious Memories Now

Recently, my grandmother passed away just shy of her 99th birthday. She was a firecracker, feisty until the end, and for the most part, sound of body and mind. We were lucky; she was able to meet and get to know many of her great and even great-great-grandchildren over the last nine years of living with my aunt and uncle.

When family would visit her, we would talk about our lives. She wanted to know what was going on, especially the more dramatic moments in our families, and we would ask her to share some of her wisdom. Often, we tried to get her to talk about what it was like growing up in New York during the 1920s and 30s. She would share many stories about her parents and siblings, like how they used to wrap their schoolbooks in paper to protect them from the weather or how her mother would stretch a meal during the Depression but never make them feel like there wasn’t enough to eat. Listening to her describe those years was like stepping back into history. Hearing about how she raised her own children, my father and his siblings, was like listening to a story from another time. She was a dedicated homemaker who washed her children’s shoelaces at night so they would be sparkling white the next morning and she was also the famous teacher who left an impact on her students that spanned generations.

To know some of her life story was to know someone who had grit, warmth, smarts, and endless dedication to her family and friends. For the last nine years of my grandfather – her husband’s – life, she was a caregiver who had a mission to make his days brighter and more meaningful. Seeing them walking carefully down the street arm in arm, dressed to the nines, was a sight to behold.

Now that she has passed, I’m grateful for the moments we shared and the many pictures we have of her with our family, but I’m also realizing that her voice, her detailed stories, are not as documented as they should have been. She was living history, and we don’t have enough of her stories recorded to share with future generations. So, knowing that, I realized it’s time to record my parents and mother-in-law before it’s too late. Even using my cell phone to record videos with our loved ones will be a step in the right direction. I’ll be researching some options to turn our simple phone videos into something we can pass onto future generations and maybe consider hiring someone to record it a bit more professionally as well. Either way, I’m making this a priority, and it might be something for you to consider as well.

Happy recording,

Fran

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