When my siblings and I were growing up, and even in our adult years, our parents would tell stories about their childhoods, parents and grand parents, and the events that occurred before we were part of their lives. Knowledge of the people and events that had shaped our parents characters helped us to understand them and in turn understand ourselves.
Growing up hearing these tales of the people of our own blood who had gone before us gave us a sense of our place in the march of history and where we fit in. By knowing the lives and accomplishments of those adults before us, we were better informed to formulate the goals and expectations for our own adult lives.
As our parents became increasingly elderly, my sister and I talked about the mutual history we shared through our parent's version of the past. We often wished we had some recorded of our favorite tales. The idea of recording and transcribing the things our parents wanted to say was born, but alas, we had waited too long. By the time we finally figured out what we needed to do, both our parents were victims of strokes and incapable of such an endeavor. Had we approached them only five years previously, we would now have a clear written record of their words and lives. The best we can do is to collaborate and piece together our memories and get them down for our own children and grandchildren. This is a poor second place to our parent's own words and enthusiastic first person accounts.
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