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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Apr 7, 2024 13:44:46 GMT
Do you?
Are older family members still telling you stories from when they were younger? Or things that you might not have known before?
I've been writing them down as soon as I can after they tell me. Sometimes they are just little bits of a story. Sometimes more. I'm not sure what to do with these, but they seem important.
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Post by teacherlisa on Apr 7, 2024 14:10:07 GMT
I have been doing this recently as well. I heard someone (I think Stacy Julian) say that the stories we tell/retell around the dinner table, or at family get togethers,holidays etc are the ones that truly belong in the scrapbooks. They are often overlooked because we often dont have a photo that prompts us to tell the story.
I have two places I am keeping them for now, one is on an index card if I happen to have pen/paper handy and the other is in a note on my phone, if that happens to be easist at the moment. I have successfully scrapbooked 3 of these stories I have been collecting so hopefully I am on track to do more of that in the future.
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Post by 950nancy on Apr 7, 2024 15:02:36 GMT
I lost my mom five years before I had kids. My dad passed when they were quite young. No living grandparents for a very long time and I am nowhere near any relatives. The stories that are told are generally what I remember or what I want my grandkids to know.
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GiantsFan
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,507
Site Supporter
Jun 27, 2014 14:44:56 GMT
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Post by GiantsFan on Apr 7, 2024 15:07:55 GMT
My sister started doing this recently for her grandkids and future generations.
She writes the story, then uses one of the AI programs to re write it. They come out more dramatic (and funny) that they actually are. My favorite ones read like a fifth grade book.
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Post by joblackford on Apr 7, 2024 18:51:33 GMT
When I visit my family (overseas) I try to jot down the stories in a notes app on my phone. Some people also suggest recording people talking, if they're OK with that. It could add some work in dictating the conversation into something coherent, but also, what a treasure to have some stories told in your loved ones' voices. I try to get the details and ask questions, but some family members are a bit resistant - to quote my aunt "don't say that, she'll write it down." ugh, secrets...
I just kept them as a series of disjointed notes, for the most part. Some things connect together and other things are just little asides of things I never knew, like my teenage dad and his friends organizing touring musicians to come to their small NZ towns and play in community halls back in the early 60s. what?! I had no idea and can't even begin to imagine it.
I have a genealogy database that allows freeform notes to be added for any person on the tree so I copied each note/anecdote into the relevant person's file. An online journal like DayOne might also work - searchable, cloud backed up. Or just in a notes app on your computer/phone or maybe in the metadata of a photo.
I love the idea of having AI take a crack at writing it into a thrilling tale, but even a collection of handwritten notes that might be a little haphazard is precious and better than nothing. Definitely important and worth recording in some way.
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scrappinwithoutpeas
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,012 
Location: Northern Virginia
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Post by scrappinwithoutpeas on Apr 7, 2024 19:38:06 GMT
I did this with my Dad's stories before he passed. He had quite a few that he liked to tell, sometimes in the retelling he would add a detail or two that he hadn't mentioned before.
We actually started years ago and we did several different methods. Oldest DD recorded him (with his permission) and wrote up the stories of his early years, war service, college, meeting/marrying my mom, etc. Then over the past few years every time I visited him I'd sit with my laptop open and just take notes whenever he got going on the stories. I asked follow-up questions and got him talking about some of the details that hadn't been included in the original write-up that DD did. So now I have all these notes, plus the original stories. Adding to the original stories is one of the things I want to get to soon, but I'm not emotionally quite ready to do that yet. (He passed 1 year ago this month.) In the meantime, I add to the notes when I think of other things that he had told my siblings and I.
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Post by marg on Apr 7, 2024 20:04:50 GMT
I've recently started asking my parents more questions about their past and either writing bullet points in my Notes app or recording it. I feel kind of weird, like I'm signaling to them "gotta jot this down since you're going to die soon!" - rather morbid - but at the same time, they seem to appreciate it and enjoy thinking about their past and telling me the stories. They know they're elderly, and they're very practical about planning for their deaths, so I'm very glad we're talking about things more.
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Post by AussieMeg on Apr 7, 2024 23:29:59 GMT
I do have a few stories from my parents and grandparents, and I have been jotting down memories from my own childhood when I think of them.
I was thinking about this the other day, when another random memory popped into my head. It dawned on me that nobody is going to be interested in these stories when I'm gone. My kids aren't into memory keeping, and some of my stories involve people who they either can't remember, or who had died before they were born, so the stories really mean nothing to them.
Likewise, yesterday my mum sent me a photo of a toy monkey from her teenage years, that was also a favourite toy of mine. Monkey is now 59yo. I thought to myself that I must make sure to get Monkey when my mum is gone. Then I wondered what will happen to it when I'm gone? Neither of my kids have any emotional attachment to it, so is it going to end up in the rubbish dump? DD used to play with it when she was little, but I doubt she remembers.
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Post by manomo on Apr 8, 2024 2:42:30 GMT
When my dad was in hospice care and confined to a bed, he started sharing stories of his childhood and his time in WWII. I started writing them down in my phone. I still have them and every now and then reread them. There are some real gems. He and his six brothers would play football in a grain bin, get their clothes so full of grain that they'd strip down to nothing. It was so fun to hear him giggle as he retold the story.  |
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