Carol's Corner

“Grandma tell us a story.”

Those words had echoed in my mind and heart for many years, from toddler aged grandchildren climbing on my knee with their favourite story book in hand until my now teenage grandchildren flopped on the living room floor begging for stories.

“What story do you want to hear” I asked

Occasionally they had a specific one they wanted to hear but often they responded with, “It doesn’t matter. Just tell us stories.”

Rosemary Alva said, “We don’t own our family history. We simply preserve it for the next generation.”

Storytelling with my children and grandchildren is one opportunity to preserve the family history and pass it on to the next generations without waiting for someone’s funeral when we typically begin to reminisce about their life, our family and what they meant to us. When we wait for special occasions, often sad ones, we miss the opportunity to fill in the blanks, to add to what we remember or refresh our memory of a long ago story or event in our family.

Over the last couple Christmas seasons, my teenage grandchildren in Ontario wanted to have grandma and grandpa tell how we met. They laughed at some of the parts but begged for details before turning to their parents to have them share their own love story. Of course they thought it might be a great idea to let grandma and grandpa fill in our thoughts on the dating, engagement and marriage of their parents. What did they learn that night? Maybe something sparked an idea for future dates they might have or finding the mate God intends for each of them. If nothing else it shared some memories, adding details to help the next generation know the beginnings of their family from before their own memories began.

Another evening at our daughter’s, who lives a few minutes from us, we listened to the struggle one of our granddaughters had with her English assignment. She decided grandpa needed to tell some adventure stories from when we lived in an isolated community in Northern Saskatchewan. She hoped this might give her an idea for the assignment to write an adventure story. After an entertaining evening of story telling, the granddaughter wrote her story based on one of her grandfather’s tales.The teachers comments, “You have a great imagination.” reminded me that truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

We all have stories based on every experience in our lives. These tales may include love and romance, adventure and unique encounters or just what life used to be like in comparison with today. No matter the subject matter there are lessons to be learned, memories to be shared and family history to be passed on to the next generations.

How do you share your memories and family history?