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history project
Apr. 9th, 2022 10:16 pmUpdate: it turned out my stepfather was wrong about his release date, but he did finally get released from rehab yesterday, and seems to be "back to normal" – I talked to both of them on the phone when he was visiting my mom tonight.
My mom has recently gotten a bug about recording memories, prompted by reading an article about a program at some elder independent living facility, where people get together and share things about their lives.
Years ago she wrote a summary of her mother's family, like which of them had come over to the US and when and some other details about the siblings that she personally knew, but she had a stroke before she finished her father's family, and then the fire burned up the computer, so it never got done. Fortunately, the summary of her mother's family was printed out and given to a few people, so there are at least hardcopy backups.
So she's thinking about doing it again, but of course her faculties are not as good as they used to be. So I've asked if the assisted living place could set her up with her computer someday and see if she could write some thing about her father's family, or her father's life, or just her own early life; they would have to turn it on and open a word processor for her, but I think she could take it from there. I don't know if she would need somebody to be talking to her in order to spur her memories. I'm also considering the idea of camping on my employer's WebEx subscription and doing some recorded interviewing, and then seeing what I can make of the transcript that WebEx provides (generally speaking it's pretty terrible, but it might be better than just typing it all in from scratch)
I think it's cool that she's got this interest, but of course it's going to be a bunch of work for somebody else to make it happen. We will see if anything actually comes of this plan. I have emailed the assisted living staff to inquire if they would be willing to get her going with the computer, assuming there was available staff, but there is a bunch of downtime midafternoon or late morning, and I'm assuming she would only be able to pay attention for less than an hour at a time. If it doesn't seem to be happening, then I will try the WebEx plan.
My mom has recently gotten a bug about recording memories, prompted by reading an article about a program at some elder independent living facility, where people get together and share things about their lives.
Years ago she wrote a summary of her mother's family, like which of them had come over to the US and when and some other details about the siblings that she personally knew, but she had a stroke before she finished her father's family, and then the fire burned up the computer, so it never got done. Fortunately, the summary of her mother's family was printed out and given to a few people, so there are at least hardcopy backups.
So she's thinking about doing it again, but of course her faculties are not as good as they used to be. So I've asked if the assisted living place could set her up with her computer someday and see if she could write some thing about her father's family, or her father's life, or just her own early life; they would have to turn it on and open a word processor for her, but I think she could take it from there. I don't know if she would need somebody to be talking to her in order to spur her memories. I'm also considering the idea of camping on my employer's WebEx subscription and doing some recorded interviewing, and then seeing what I can make of the transcript that WebEx provides (generally speaking it's pretty terrible, but it might be better than just typing it all in from scratch)
I think it's cool that she's got this interest, but of course it's going to be a bunch of work for somebody else to make it happen. We will see if anything actually comes of this plan. I have emailed the assisted living staff to inquire if they would be willing to get her going with the computer, assuming there was available staff, but there is a bunch of downtime midafternoon or late morning, and I'm assuming she would only be able to pay attention for less than an hour at a time. If it doesn't seem to be happening, then I will try the WebEx plan.
