Continuance

Continuance Spring / Summer 2003

Making a Permanent Record for the Next Generation

In the story Wilfrid Gordon Patridge, a little boy has a good friend named Nancy Alison Delacourt Cooper who lives in the nursing home next door. One day Wilfrid hears his parents say that Miss Nancy has lost her memory. When he asks different people "What is a memory?" they tell him it is something warm, something that makes you happy, something that makes you sad, something as precious as gold, and something from long ado. He is determined to help his friend, so he takes a basket and gathers treasures that represent the definitions of memory he has heard. He gives each of the treasures to Miss Nancy and each one stimulates recollections from her past. She begins to tell stories about button-up boots, going to the beach, and he brother who fought in the war.

All through our lives we hear and enjoy family stories, but too often we don't make a permanent record of them. We look at the photo albums and talk about the old picture of Great Grandfather on horseback, but we forget to label the pictures. The years pass by, and we find that the storytellers are gone. The photographs are still in the albums, but we don't remember if that was Great grandfather or Uncle John. We put the lace tablecloth on the table and remember it belonged to someone, but who was it? "If only I had recorded the story, identified that photo, asked about our special possessions. Now it is too late."

But as long as family has elders, it isn't too late. We can all begin to record family stories and preserve them for the next generation, and the next. How difficult is it to say: Tell me about the day I was born. What do you remember most about growing up? Why are you crying in this picture?

Wilfrid saw the urgency in helping his friend Miss Nancy; how happy he was when he gave her the basket full of memories and heard her secrets. Miss Nancy too was content to know that someone cared about her memories and wanted to hear her stories. Like Wilfrid and Miss Nancy, younger and older generations find that family stories strengthen their ties particularly when they make a permanent record for the next generation.