Many of you have heard me speak about the "Power of Story", but this year I had the wonderful opportunity to see it in action (yet again). The "Power of Story" is pretty simple if you think about it. It is the ability to connect people, generations, history, families, friends through storytelling. Storytelling has been around for generations and has been a common form of tracking history for ages. It has been a proven form of remembering events and people.
With today's world and the technology that we have, most people have gotten away from sharing stories. I have the HONOR of working with people to capture their stories and preserve them in beautiful books. I think that the best part about what I do is that I do not have to worry about the stories being forgotten. I help people write their story so that they can be remembered the way that they want to be remembered.
I guess that is where this story comes from...
Christmas is an exceptionally busy time of the year for me. People are trying to capture their stories and give them as gifts to their friends and families. This Christmas,I had the HONOR of working with this fantastic young lady. She had decided to write a story about her grandmother. They live very far from each other, but the granddaughter wanted to give a very special gift and she had chosen to give the "gift of story" this year.
I personally know the grandmother and couldn't wait until she got her book. She sometimes feels very lonely and forgotten, but tries to be tough through the process of growing old. She has told me on many occasions that "when you get old, they young kids in your family get too busy to visit you". She has also said that the "kids today are too busy to sit and talk with her." The sadness I feel from those discussions is deep. I think deep down, I am afraid of growing old because I don't want to be forgotten or lonely. Well, I started working with the granddaughter and managed to help her capture a very remarkable and inspiring story about her grandma. She found some fantastic old photos and her original birth certificate (an 84 year old certificate). We wrote about her grandmother's service to the Red Cross during the war as a nurse and many other wonderful accomplishments. It was nice to see the gap between the grandmother and granddaughter grow closer together as this process took place. Through this process the grandmother did not know that there was going to be a book written about her, that part was going to be a surprise. She only felt the desire that her granddaughter had to know more about her life.
On Christmas the grandmother got her book.
I watched her carry her book from house to house showing each new person HER story. She was so proud! She was not going to be forgotten. Someone cared about her enough to take the time to listen to her. Someone paid close enough attention to what she was saying and then put her words with some pictures and captured her story. On one occasion I witnessed her tear up as her great-granddaughter (6 years old) asked her questions about her life and wanted to know more.
The Power of Story! What a concept. I am grateful that I get to share in this process with both the old and the young!
When was the last time that you asked someone about their story?
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Hi! My name is Amber Collier I am with an organization for preemie parents and was really interested in what your are doing. Using this concept of "The Power Of Story" may be a really good outlet for preemie families and a way to remember what they actually overcame having survived their time in the NICU with a baby. Would you be interested in possibly writing a blog post about this as a therapeutic aid for families? How it has helped you? And maybe a little about your NICU journey. I would love to connect with you as I advocate for memory preservation through pictures for NICU moms! Here is my email please contact me if you'd be interested in volunteering a little of your time to us amber@preemieprints.org to write about your journey! God Bless You!
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