This is not a DIY project

Maybe “Do It Yourself” isn’t the best option when recording your family stories.

To be clear, I have nothing against a good do-it-yourself project.

I was raised by a depression-era mother, and for her DIY wasn’t a trend, it was a way of life. There was gardening, canning, cooking, sewing, child raising, and sometimes even minor surgery. I remember the summer she saved empty JOY dishwashing liquid bottles so we kids could use them as squirt guns.

That said, I was also witness to some DIY attempts gone wrong, like the home permanents! Nothing like having stinky liquid sting your head for 20 minutes only to have your hair look worse for a long time afterward. 

And that’s why, when it comes to something as important as recording a life story, I suggest DIY is not the best option. It’s better to have experienced help. It’s not something you do all the time and become expert at such as my mother when it came to canning or cooking. No, how we choose to record a life story is more like the option of getting a professional permanent versus going with a home perm. Based on my experience, I recommend a hairdresser.

Often when someone finds out I record family stories, they begin telling me all about a person in their life who is/was very special to them. Recently I was speaking with a woman who told me about her aunt. This aunt felt like a second mother to her. She told me all about “Auntie” and how she loved to listen to her stories about growing up as a young girl in Italy. Inspired by the wondrous stories Auntie told, she bought her aunt one of those This is Your Life books. You know, the book full of questions—where and when were you born?, etc.  She told Auntie excitedly, “Now you can write down all of your stories!”

This woman related that, years later when her aunt passed away, she rediscovered the book in her aunt’s home while her family was cleaning the house in preparation for the estate sale. She was excited not only that she found the book, but now she could read once again the familiar stories Auntie had always shared, and maybe some new ones as well! She opened the cover with anticipation and began turning the pages. The only handwriting in the book was her aunt’s name and date of birth on the prescribed lines on the cover page. The rest of the book was blank.  

I’ve heard variations of this story too many times.

I wish they would stop selling those books! 

Recording the stories of family who are special to us is not a solitary pursuit. We need the human connection, we need a concerned listener. We need a little kind guidance to bring those stories to the surface and capture and preserve them in a printed book that is readily accessible (and that serves to preserve precious family photos illustrating the included stories as well).

I have compassion for this woman who handed her aunt a do-it-yourself project that never got done. Life gets in the way and time passes. It’s the same for all of us in many aspects of our lives. I’m sure Auntie would have had fun sharing again her childhood stories of Italy, not to mention her family’s later relocation to the US and her adult life here, if she had a listener. But the task of writing her stories by herself likely felt like work. Life happened regardless.

Let’s not take a DIY approach with something as valuable and urgent as preserving the stories that make up our family’s legacy.

Not when there’s a better option available.  

So, if anyone has ever told you, “You should write about your life,” or if you’ve ever had the thought yourself, great!

Just click the button below and schedule your free consultation.

I’m here for you.