Where did she live?
What school did she go to?
Who was her first boyfriend?
What did she think about the changes happening in the country she lived in?
What did she want to be when she grew up?
When our grandparents or parents leave this earth, we are usually left with some questions. I spent summers with my grandparents and listened to their stories, hungry for their memories from when they were children, and yet still I have so many questions now as an adult for my long-deceased grandparents.
When my interactive journal, A New Way to Journal, came out, my sister-in-law bought one for her grandmother who had spent a lot of her life traveling to very exotic places. She had some incredible stories but, having been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, she was starting to forget some details. My sister-in-law didn’t want her grandmother’s stories to disappear and was hopeful that she would fill in the journal with them.
While I have no medical degree and can’t guarantee anything about anyone anywhere, I was moved with joy and quite a bit of emotion when my sister-in-law told me how much her grandmother loved the journal. She loved it not only because it gave her something to sit down and do each day, but because as she wrote about one topic, she would remember a story and be able to write it down right away. Her grandmother also wants her stories preserved and passed on to the great-grandchildren, but who better to tell them than her? If she can remember them and write them down, all the better.
It is difficult to get people to sit down and write. Many older people I can into contact with believe no one wants to hear their story. I just don’t think that’s true. Perhaps we don’t take the time to tell them how much we want to hear the stories, perhaps we get so busy we forget to take the time to ask for them, but believe me, when the older generation is gone, we suddenly regret not having the stories.
Because a blank page can be intimidating for anyone, I created A New Way to Journal with 36 prompts, lots of writing space, fun little question sections and encouraging quotes. There are no dates so the individual can choose whether to go through page by page or to skip around to the prompt they feel like filling in that day. It’s a fun way to document your thoughts, ideas and feelings and might just be the ticket for pulling those memories out fo your loved ones so they can be written down for the younger generations.
Through Cyber Monday, A New Way to Journal is BOGO 50% off. So you can have one and your loved one can have one. Or gift one to everyone you know!