More Than Memories Project: 2009

So, I have had a little bit of an itch to make some progress on this book before the year is out. My parents are headed down to see Grandma Shirley next week, so I'd like to have something to send down with them to show here.

Right now I am working on family tree stuff. I thought it would be cool to have a picture family tree. So, took the pictures of each person who is a descendant of Shirley and put it on a family tree.

Here is a rough draft.

Shirley Through The Years

One of the page layouts that may end up in the book is a collection of photos that shows Grandma Shirley through the years. The pictures above span over 75 years back to the childhood home of Shirley and her family.

The second picture from the bottom is Shirley and RoseAnn from 1936.

The third picture from the bottom is Shirley standing in front of Naurine Rose's car. Shirley accompanied Naurine to check out loads of wheat during the summertime and Shirley went along.

The fourth picture from the bottom is Shirley as a teenager modeling a top she made out of handkerchiefs in the late 1940s.

The fifth picture is a picture of Shirley in her early twenties.

The sixth picture from the bottom is a family photo with Phil, Shirley and the kids from 1975.

The top picture is Grandma Shirley and Roger standing in front of their home in Wickenburg, AZ circa 2009.

As you can seen, there is more sotry behind each of these photos than is listed above. The goal is to put these pictures together and then have Grandma provide audio, video or text describing what is happening in these pictures and when they took place. That type of information is really what I think will make this book come to life.

Does this house look familiar?

The pictures of this house may look familiar to a certain group of people. If you are one of those people, I'd love to hear your comments on seeing these pictures. This is Wiltfong home circa 1950s and 1960s.

For those out there who have memories of this house, share them:

What were your favorite memories here?

What was your favorite part of the house or yard?

What did you not like about the house?

This is an interactive posting today. Feel free to make comments.

StoryCorps

So, I was listening to NPR a few months back, yep big nerd, and listened to an ongoing series entitled Story Corps. Story Corps is a non-profit organization who have recorded over 50,000 life stories with family and friends. It is an oral history project that was founded in 2003 and has recently released a book with a collection of stories, Listening is an Act of Love. In this book are stories of love, loss, childhood remembrance, war, children, etc.

I thought Story Corps was such a great idea the first time I heard it on the radio. I have since heard numerous stories from the program and enjoyed listening to many. After hearing these wonderful stories from people around the country I was inspired to seek out some stories from my own family. Growing up, I do have some memories of my grandparents and great grandparents. On my father's side, I have great memories of my grandparents, Bill and Dorothy, at their lakehouse around Ashland, Nebraska (I think, anyone feel free to correct this). The lakehouse or cabin was at the end of a short gravel road on the lake. Looking back on it now there wasn't much to the lakehouse: one floor, a couple rooms, one bathroom, and a small kitchen. But, man did I think it was the coolest place in the world as a kid. I still have in my bathroom today a picture that was hanging above the toliet at the cabin. It is a black and white photo of a little boy sitting over a pot with his pants down outside his house. Below the picture it says 'Efforts'. Now that is funny!

That framed picture is something I can hold onto from that time. I now that there are pictures out there from the cabin, but I haven''t seen them in years. And I'm sure there are great stories from days on the lake with family and neighbors, but it is to late to ask Bill and Dorothy to tell them to me. A lot of those stories passed on with them and have been lost forever. The closest I could come would be to ask their children and frends about stories they have from the cabin. But wouldn't it be great to have a video or audio recording of their favorite cabin stories? I do and this is my party and I'll cry if I want to!

This is the opportunity I have with my remaining grandparent, Shirley. Here is a short audio recording of Grandma Shirley talking about the trips her and Phil took her family on many years ago. Now, this is something that lives on and gives a glimpse into what it was like raising five children and going on vacation. Thanks in large part to my sister Anna, there are over 50 recordings of various lengths with Shirley talking about her favorite memories. 50 is a great start. The next step is to start recording some video of Grandma about her memories.

The Alzheimer's Project - HBO

HBOThe Alzheimer's Project

About a month or so ago I learned of The Alzheimer's Project documentary series on HBO. This series of videos discusses potentially the most debilitating disease known to humankind. "Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an irreversible, progressive brain disease that slowly destroys memory and other thinking skills, and eventually even the ability to carry out the simplest tasks," according to the website. Currently there are about 5 million Americans affected by Alzheimer's and with the Boomer population rapidly aging, that number could soar to more than 11 million by 2040.

Some quick facts:

One out of eight people age 65 or older has Alzheimer's. The number of people with the disease doubles for every 5-year age interval beyond age 65.
54% of the adult U.S. population has been touched by Alzheimer's.
The number of people with AD doubles for every 5-year interval beyond age 65.
Dementia is a general term that refers to a decline in cognitive function so extensive that it interferes with daily life and activities, Alzheimer's is the most common cause of dementia

Watch the trailer for the project here. It is a powerful glimpse into what this video series covers about AD. There are 4 films a part of the series: The Memory Loss Tapes, Grandpa, Do You Know Who I Am?, Momentum in Science, and Caregivers. Each of these is excellent, but I want to focus on the first 2, The Memory Loss Tapes and Grandpa, Do You Know Who I Am?

In Grandpa, Do You Know Who I Am?, the documentary follows the stories of five children who has grandparents suffering from Alzheimer's. There are some very heartwarming and at the same time heartbreaking stories of seniors losing their memory.

One of the many things this project brings to light is the importance of finding ways to remember the life and experiences of someone suffering from Alzheimer's. A great way to do that is to take an audio recorder and sit down to visit with them about their life. Start recording those stories the person has so that you have them before they are lost forever. This project has been an additional inspiration in making time with my Grandma Shirley and putting together this life book. These stories will live on long past the recording date and can be passed down to future generations. Taking time to look through old photo books and ask seniors about them is such an enriching experience. As a country music fan, there is a specific song that always comes to mind when I am thinking about memory loss and how hard it can be for the person and the family. Rascal Flatts has a song, "Ellsworth" that makes me think of my grandparents and the experiences they have in their minds, if someone would ask. Here's a link to a YouTube posting of the song.

What should a memory book look like?

So, now that the process of collecting and scanning the initial photos is coming to a close my thoughts turn to how to cram a football field full of information into a yard of book space.

How does one go about displaying a life's work in a fashion that is natural and makes sense to the reader? I thought about using categories of places as dividers and then put photos and stories from each place next to each other on pages. For example, everything that happened at the lakehouse no matter what year. A collage of information, stories, pictures right together on adjacent pages.

Or how about we open the book with the grandchildren (shamesless grab for attention by me) and then work our way back to Grandma's childhood? Or I could highlight specific stories that she mentioned and then build the pictures around that?

Or the best idea (read: least amount of thought required) would be start at the beginning and end at present. I thought this would be natural and make sense to the reader (again, read: I'm slow and don't have to think a lot this way). So, unless there is a change of heart down the road, chronological order rules the day.
The book will be split up into 4 distinct sections: Ancestors, Childhood, Raising a Family, and The Golden Years.

Above are 2 pictures, first one that would fit in the Childhood section and the second in the Ancestors section.

Can you name each person in the pictures?

Scan Photos - A task by itself

To begin this process of creating a memory book for my grandma Shirley I started by asking if she had any old photo albums that I could look at. For lack of knowing a better place to start I thought starting to look at those old photos would begin to tell a story about Grandma, her ancestors, childhood and family. I visited with her on the phone a few times and she has story upon story from her life. So, the natural next step was to begin recording those stories and finding some way to put those in the book as well. Well, .ittle did I know that in asking for the photo albums that I would soon enough have more than 10 albums in my possession, with some being as big as a phone book. I got what I asked for and then some.

The good thing is that now there are over 4 GB worth of pictures saved after the scanning of the photos has taken place. And if you have ever wondered what it feels like to scan 4 GB of photos onto your computer, below is a close depiction:

or this:

Anyway, the photo scanning process is nearly finished, unless additional photos surface as the process goes along. With that chapter of my life behind me, I push on with the compilation of the photos, stories, audio, video and attempt to make it into a coherent book. I decided to use Blurb to make the book. If you haven't seen or heard of Blurb before, first of all what rock do you live under, it is a great site for the amateur (me) to make a professional looking book that is completely customized. There are a few other options to make the book including using Photoshop. But, to use Photoshop would mean that I knew even a little bit about what I am doing and also digital design software. 0 for 2 there. My sister can run circles around me with that stuff, so I'll stick with the idiot-friendly software for the time being.

My Grandma Shirley

Hello and welcome to the blog, Creating Grandma's Memory Book, dedicated to following the creation of a memory book for my grandmother, Shirley.

What is a life book?

In short, a life book is the happy medium between a photo album and having an actual conversation over coffee with a loved one. It is an interactive book with photos, articles, audio and video recordings encompassing the memories and experiences that make up someone''s life.

Why create a life book?

The idea for the life book came from interactions and conersations i have had with many senior citizens. As part of my current job I sometimes have the opportunity to see and talk to seniors in their homes. In almost every time iwas fortunate enough to meet with a senior, the senior almost always had pictures of family members displayed in the home. An easy way to get a senior to
start talking is to ask who was in the pictures? How many kids do u
have? Grandkids? Great grandkids? People have such amazing stories to
tell and hardly anyone asks.

Which brings me to why I wanted to do this. I was visiting with my
grandmother once when i was younger and she was talking about her family
history. As a typical teenager I was timing in my head the amount of
time it would take to get back to my paused game of Mike Tyson's
punchout on Nintendo.

More Than Memories Project

HBOThe Alzheimer's Project

My Grandma Shirley

Blog Archive

Followers