Spend Time, Capture Stories

I’ve spoken with people who barely knew their grandparents, and some who never knew them at all. While I didn’t understand how rare it was then, I was among five living generations until my great-great-grandmother passed away when I was a young teen. Likewise, I failed to celebrate this rarity with my children when their great-great-grandmother was alive for several years after they were born.

First, there is the pain of regret. What a blessing it would have been to these two ladies, no doubt, to have received more visits from their descendants. When I think about how much I treasure my time with our four-year-old grandson, I can’t imagine how precious it would be to get to know his children and grandchildren and to be part of their lives.

Second, there is the pain of loss. How much richer would my life be today had I absorbed stories from my great-great-grandmother? The Civil War had been over for only 20 years when she was born; how was her upbringing impacted by the great conflict that threatened to tear our young country apart? What was it like to start a family in the early 1900s? Did World War I claim anyone she knew? What was it like to raise babies in such uncertain times?

As we celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, I wonder what the 150th celebration was like, marked a few months after her 40th birthday.

Was daily living hard, farming rented land on Lookout Mountain and raising several children? What did they eat? What did they do for entertainment? How did they live?

Time took her eyesight, her hearing, and, eventually, her memories. At age 97, it claimed her life. But time also took her stories. Not because she wasn’t willing to share them, but because I didn’t take the time to ask.

Sure, I was only a kid when she died, so I didn’t fully appreciate the rare gift I had been given. And that’s my point. We should be more intentional about capturing the stories of family members while they are still here to share them. In so doing, we will enrich our lives with tales that belong to us just as much as they belong to them.

To get these stories, we must spend time with these precious people. And that, in turn, will be a tremendous blessing to them.

Our family stories are the threads that bind generations. What can we do to capture and preserve those stories? Email your thoughts and ideas to groundhognews@yahoo.com.