Carol's Corner

“We’re all made of stories. When they finally put us underground, the stories are what will go on.” Charles de Lint

We sat around visiting close family members after the death of my brother’s father-in-law, Jack. During this time of grieving, the family had the duty to sort through the belongings left behind. My niece and nephew eagerly told me about a find in their grandfather’s desk – a journal. Jack had always had a small notebook in the pocket of his shirt and would jot daily events, price of gas or food or some special event or appointment. There had been many notebooks throughout the years. Yet the family had been surprised at a larger notebook in his desk – a journal. No one, not even his wife, realized the time he had taken to record what he thought important enough to keep and be read by others. He had recorded some important facts and dates from his early years including his courtship and marriage to their grandmother. After a few pages of summary of his childhood, youth and marriage, the rest of the journal appeared to be a summary from all the small notebooks.

I loved to hear the excitement in the voices of my niece and nephew. They expressed what I had felt to be so important – we need to save family stories, facts and even bits of trivia to pass on when we are no longer here to tell the stories for ourselves. At the end of the conversation about Jack’s journal, my niece challenged me to write the stories from our side of their family so one day they could sit, read and reread the bits and pieces that were part of our life.

I have a box of old journals and day timers sitting at home. I wondered if the old calendars held any importance or if they should just be recycled. Now I knew. It was time to take the trivia, the events listed and use them as the starting point for a history of my own family – my husband and children, our adventures, our everyday activities or even my thoughts penned about various activities in our everyday lives. The future generations hopefully might be excited with these insights into life during different decades just like Jack’s family was about his.

Do you have a treasure trove of trivia recorded in appointment books, on calendars or in journals? I challenge you to consider using them as a basis to save family history and leave a legacy of memories.