Did you realize that the best way to leave a legacy for your family is to leave a recording for them?The other day while on a family visit I was talking to my grandson (actually the husband of my granddaughter so I guess that makes him my grandson-in-law). He is a very intelligent, extremely inquisitive, industrious person. 

He is currently going to college studying marketing and I love talking to him because he has all these insights into companies he has studied. To gather facts about companies, he does a lot of telephone interviewing.

I asked him if it would be advantageous when interviewing these people if he could record the conversation. He got very excited. “Oh, that would be cool,” he told me. Read more

Of course you’re thinking of Christmas gifts. Aren’t you? Well, I don’t usually, but this year I am because I want to tell you about a wonderful idea for a gift to your family, but this one you have to start early.

Present them with a family memoir. A memoir is like a biography or autobiography. It’s a way to be remembered, to honor your experiences, and to pass along your reflections. It’s a way for family members to get to know their siblings and their ancestors.

I had an opportunity to live with my maternal grandmother for a short time just before she passed away. She was anxious to talk and she was probably thinking a lot about her youth. I regret, now, that I wasn’t more attentive to her and asked her more probing questions. I wish I had recorded what she had to say.

The same is true of my mother and of the many members of the rest of my family.

So for Christmas this year, why not give a gift that the whole family can enjoy for generations? Give the gift of memories. Read more

Want to have fun some evening or Sunday afternoon — besides going to be the beach?Want to do something nice for your family? 

You know all those photographs you have sitting around, some in shoe boxes, some in photo albums. Some have something written on the back, some not? Oh, what a pain that’s going to cause you and your family one of these days when no one can remember when the picture was taken, why or of whom.

Sit down with your digital recorder and start recording helpful information about the photographs. Number the photographs, or in some way catalog them so they correspond to the recording, transfer the digital recording to your computer, burn it to a CD and include it with the photographs.

Not only can you give the name of the person in the photograph, but you can tell something fun or informative about when the photograph was taken, add a little history to it — like, “This is my niece. She and her sister look so much alike you have to be sure to put the name and date on the photograph or you’ll never be able to tell them apart.”

You get the picture — no pun intended. You can have fun remembering about the photographs and do something for you and your family in that future date when no one can remember about the picture.