That’s a leaf that clearly has a story to tell.
We all have so many stories to tell. Wonderful stories. Stories that tell us about life. Characters. Events. Even reveal things about ourselves.
It’s sad when those stories are lost. When the are lost they are lost forever.
I’ve lost so many people in my life. Friends, grandparents , parents, even my partner. All had stories to tell. One of my biggest regrets is that the importance of stories didn’t sink in until far too late. Not until they had left this world. So many stories went with them. All I can do now is just shake my head at the thought of how little I really know about those loved ones. Can I even remember how their voices sounded!
Now I look back and wonder what could have been. If only I had found more time to listen. To ask more questions. To write some words down. Maybe even record them. How treasured would it be to listen to some of those lost voices again, to listen to them tell their stories. Even just to hear those voice again talking about routine stuff. Just before my partner went into the hospital for the final time she left me a voice mail. Seemingly nothing important, can’t even remember what it was about. Why didn’t I save that. Why didn’t I save that last voicemail from my mum asking for some items from the local shop.
These are real regrets. Please don’t make the same mistakes I made. Some mistakes can’t be fixed.
A Dad trying to cope with the loss of his Partner and becoming a single parent. 
I have a tape recording of an aunty talking about her past, before she fell ill and past away. I haven’t played it for some years because I didn’t want the tape to possibly jam. Now I don’t have a cassette player. I would love to have it transferred on cd and the recording made clearer. But don’t know how to go about it.
I once wrote to a recording business to see if they would do it and how much. But they never got back to me.
As for my mum, I bought a book some years ago that had questions she could answer about her life. She said she wouldn’t do it. I was naturally upset, as this was my family history.
Now mum is in a care home with her still not safe to live on her own. Her words are practically gone. Both verbally and written.
I have her poems that I chased for recently.
And looking through her things, that book I bought years ago, mum filled in a few pages.
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I remember someone saying that they went into a little record shop and asked a similar question. The shop guy transferred it for them free.
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That was nice.
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Thank you
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How very true. OFten we are just too busy living to listen to stories. And that is a great shame. Also i guess that people don’t always tell them cos for them that was just life.
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It is. You have so much talent as a writer you should one day do one about you and your family. Even if it’s just for later generations. I would read it.
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My FIL always promised to tell me about his medals and those of his father, but sadly we never got round to it, mainly because MIL wouldn’t let him.
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That’s so sad.
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We used to have some great debates which would always put her back up. She was very difficult.
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Debates are good.
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We enjoyed them, and sometimes he would deliberately take the opposite approach. I miss him, he was a great character.
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This world needs more characters
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You’re right Gary. We don’t see many these days, and even if we did, other people may have no time for them or think they’re ‘strange’. It’s a shame.
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It is such a shame
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I join my voice to yours, Gary. My parents lived in London through WW2. Why did it never occur to me to ask them hundreds of questions! Why did I never ask about my grandparents. Where did they come from? Just so many things about myself that my parents could have told me. It’s mind boggling that one didn’t think of these things till it was too late. Listen to us, people out there!
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It is so sadly true.
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I basically no zero about my dad really. He was in the army and that was it really.
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I have this same feeling of regret over photographs. I would have this reoccurring dream where I was with my kids and something priceless would happen but I didn’t have free hands and I’d be begging my ex-husband or anyone nearby “Please, take a picture”. Really I was asking them to notice and remember. I have so few pictures because I just couldn’t take care of everyone while simultaneously capturing moments. At least I have them in my head. When you have them in your hand or a story is written down you can share them with others.
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That’s true. You have to look after them more in your head.
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This reminds me of a post I have in my drafts. I may need to take a look at it over the weekend. Perhaps it’s time to share that one. I have such a hard time deleting emails from friends now. I still have some emails saved from friends who are no longer in the land of the living. I do go back and read them from time to time. Stories definitely do get lost and forgotten. I don’t like that. I also don’t like deleting email. 😀
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They will become gateways in to a long gone time. So important. I so pleased you didn’t delete those emails. 😀
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We never know when the “last time” will be. My girls and I have a rule that we always say “I love you” when we part. Even for a quick walk to the corner market.
Like Tina, I save emails and text messages. Voice recordings I dont have. It’s funny, when we still had a landline, no one could tell me or the girls apart when we answered the phone. Not even my mother. I guess my daughters sound like me.😄
The stories are important, but the time spent telling, or listening to the stories is the really important part! The connection.
💌💌
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That’s so true. Over time the connection fades when they are gone. It would be good to have something to fire that up again every so often. xx
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I think when we are young we don’t see the importance of asking those questions as we don’t think about the time when these people won’t be around any more. Later I think we get busy with life and just don’t think about it. But then, when it’s too late, it hits us hard because we can’t ask those questions because there is no one to answer them. I do remember a few interesting stories I heard my mother tell years ago, but they were second-hand stories. I didn’t know my grandparents well, and never spent time alone with them and I was only 7 when one granddad died, 12 when one grandmother died and around 16 when the other set died, so was too young to think about such things even if I could have had the opportunity. I have the family tree from my mother’s side of the family but not from my dad’s side. But those things don’t contain the stories that should go along with the names to make them “real” people. I think a lot of history is lost this way and it’s a real shame.
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I think when we are young we don’t see the importance of asking those questions as we don’t think about the time when these people won’t be around any more. Later I think we get busy with life and just don’t think about it. But then, when it’s too late, it hits us hard because we can’t ask those questions because there is no one to answer them. I do remember a few interesting stories I heard my mother tell years ago, but they were second-hand stories. I didn’t know my grandparents well, and never spent time alone with them and I was only 7 when one granddad died, 12 when one grandmother died and around 16 when the other set died, so was too young to think about such things even if I could have had the opportunity. I have the family tree from my mother’s side of the family but not from my dad’s side. But those things don’t contain the stories that should go along with the names to make them “real” people. I think a lot of history is lost this way and it’s a real shame.
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That’s true. That’s why it’s often too late before we realise the importance.
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I don’t know why this published twice???
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WP is definitely playing up today.
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Such wise advice. 💕
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Thank you 🙏😀
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That makes me feel a little sad. We don’t appreciate people enough do we? X
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We don’t x
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Yes, very well-spoken, do we ever take this advice.. No but yes, definitely should. Thank you.
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