The gift of documenting

“I know exactly what you should write! We want the navy years!”

His face said really? Not believing his grandchildren would read another book he wrote about his life.

“Do you realise that we had ‘When Grandpa was a little boy’ read to us as children? they were our bedtime stories for years and the stories we would ask for over and over again! We want the navy years!”

***

You know what? I don’t think that my Grandpa realised the impact of his first book. I know my Mum has asked him for his naval stories before but it never came about.

So, on this cold November day at Bath Christmas market, he and I sat in the cafe warming up with hot drinks (really we were giving him a break from shopping and I was there to watch him so he didn’t wander off because he doesn’t use his mobile and we can lose him for hours... talking from experience!) and this conversation resonated with him.

Several months later I received a book outlying his experiences in the navy. A book we had waited years for!

Since this time, I borrowed my Grandparent’s photo albums and scanned all the images their grandchildren would want copies of. All of them. It took me hours months and I narrowed the selection down to not include all their holiday snaps, it’s about 1000 photographs.

Fast forwarded a couple more months from writing and my Grandpa has his first stroke.

Since writing the book he has had two strokes, both of which have affected his memory and at the moment there are times where he’s existing in the past.

He keeps asking questions about his navy experience. 

Granny got in touch, she has no idea which album his navy experiences are in. She started a joint chat with my Mum and I “He keeps talking about meeting Montgomery, does anyone have a copy of that photo?”

I quickly text granny the photograph she was looking for and she shared it with Grandpa, but I had started flicking through his navy photographs and soon I was filling the chat with photographs from his teenage years and then their early married life.

We all came to the conclusion that he would love a book outlining his experiences with photographs; plus, it might help his memory.

This weekend, we gave him his book:

These photos might just be the most meaningful photographs we have taken all year. I love his expressions and the way he starts talking my Granny through the photographs.

If you were ever in doubt about the importance of documenting your story, just imagine if you lost part of your memory tomorrow, how precious that history would be.