“My grandmother made fried chicken so good it would make you weep.”
I spent Tuesday afternoon interviewing my dad. I’ve interviewed him about his life before, but this time was more official, more Memory Lane Jane style! He told me stories about his grandparents, his parents, his early years…things I had never heard before or thought to ask about. He shared about his mom’s hot temper and how he once watched his dad drink “honest to god moonshine” out of a milk cooler in the ground.
I was shocked by how much I cared. Don’t take that the wrong way. Of course I care about his story, but I was shocked by how I hung on every detail, every description, every tangent. No word wasn’t of interest to me! Why? Because his story is my story. I left knowing my family better, my dad better, my self better.
All the time people say to me that their story isn’t important, that they haven’t done anything valuable. But I’m here to say as a daughter that it wouldn’t matter if my dad were a president or a line worker, his story matters to me. I can’t wait to share his stories and my stories with my kids one day.
Want to capture your loved one’s story? Send me a message.
“Your story, it’s not boring and ordinary, by the way. We just get the one life, you know. Just one. You can’t live someone else’s or think it’s more important just because it’s more dramatic. What happens matters, maybe only to us, but it matters.”