FILLING IN THE MEMORY GAP
A granddaughter's gift, a daughter's help and a grandfather's memories. The perfect combination.
Recently when I went to help with my dad after he had been in the hospital, the two of us had lots of time to sit around and visit. One day, I was doing a bit of straightening up for him while he napped and I found a book his granddaughter had given him years ago (the dedication was “from Rachel, 1987”) – but I could tell that it had never been spread open beyond the first few pages. There were no entries on any page. It was called Grandfather Remembers and I thought to myself, what a perfect way to spend some hours. How right I was!
In between watching some favorite old movies together, we started filling in the pages. I wrote everything down as he talked because his arthritis hinders him from writing in his beautiful penmanship now. The book was great because it offered guidance by providing very specific questions.
Over the years I’ve talked to my dad about what he did in his various businesses and jobs, but now I was learning a lot of new things—and I was amazed by some of what he remembered. He knew exactly how our youngest sister met her husband (it was a blind date and the couple who fixed them up got sick, so they went to dinner anyway!). He’s always loved cars, especially classic automobiles, so he was very clear about his first car and who taught him to drive. In fact, many stories evolved around cars and often he’d get up and go to his den to take down a car model he’d built, just to let me know why that was a favorite or offer some other connection between the car and an old friend.
My sister gave me a family tree to tuck inside the book and when I had to leave, I set the book on the coffee table and told my other sisters about it so they could continue filling in our dad’s history on their next visits. And Rachel plans to help fill in some pages too during her upcoming college break.
—Priscilla D., Watertown, MN