“We’re losing millions of stories everyday”, says Oscar Nilsson.
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A couple of years back I was told that people who don’t sign up for organ donation are wasting their organs that other people could benefit from, so I signed up. In fact, everybody should! Lately, I’ve been thinking that there are other things also worth saving. What about the stories that become forgotten over time? Everyday, roughly 150,000 people pass away. With them, they take many of the stories and lessons learned from their life experiences. Aren’t they worth preserving as well? Think of the things we could learn about each other, and about life. Obviously, we can’t change the course of life, but there must be a way to save the most vital of stories through time.
When my grandmother got sick a while back, my father left Sweden to spend as much time with her in Israel as he could. Not only that, but he also started asking her questions about her life that he was curious about. From there, he made sure to write them all down so they wouldn’t be forgotten. What she shared were some truly remarkable stories about how she grew up as a Jew in Bulgaria during WW2 and managed to escape the claws that took hold of the rest of her family.
And so, I began thinking about how much I really knew about my grandmother and her incredible journey. When I was younger, she showed me photos and told me some of her stories, but I was still too young to understand it all. Now that she has passed away, I’m so thankful my dad wrote those notes down when he did because I am now able to remind myself of what kind of person she was and the type of adversity she faced. I can even tell my future kids about what kind of person their great grandmother was, and when their grandchildren ask about their heritage, they too will have these notes for reference regarding my grandmother’s escape to Israel. These stories will not be lost, but will the same thing happen to me when my own parents one day grow older and pass on? Will I be prepared to carry on their history to future generations?
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Nick Baum came and talked to my class a few weeks ago. His vision is to permanently preserve family stories. He wants people to be able to write down their history, one question at a time. If someone asked me to write my own biography, I would laugh and say that I’m not a writer. However, if I received a question a week about my life, it would be more manageable. StoryWorth is a service that collects family stories by sending out weekly emails with a question to be answered. Families collect their stories within the platform and can ask their own family members about anything they’d like them to write about. Nick just printed the first book based off of these questions.
Encouraged by Nick’s project I went out and met Alex Pellegrini and his wonderful wife Leslie outside the San Francisco Senior Centre. We chatted for a while and I listened to their fantastic stories, the adventures they’ve been on (all over the world) and the people they’ve met. We talked about their relationships with their parents and Alex told me that he wished he had cultivated a deeper connection with his father. Now that he’s not around anymore, Alex regrets not listening to what his father had to say.
“Without you, I have no history,” Alex told me. Which leads me to believe that if we’re not able to share our stories with one another, it will almost be as if we don’t have a history at all. Watch the video of Alex and Leslie below.
Memories and stories might be the most valuable thing we have in our families, so why are we wasting so many of them?
Sign up for StoryWorth through this link to get a free trial and 10% off: https://www.storyworth.com/
Wow, makes ya think. The relationships we have with people and what they represent in our life’s history. Thinking of the countless people who have been in my life and what they’ve meant to me …. what a rich history I have. Great video!