Write Your Stories Down

Everyone's a writer...in some form or fashion.

Oh, maybe not on a par with Shakespeare, say...or Nora Roberts (yes, I just put them in the same sentence, so sue me). But we all have stories to tell.

I often dispute this fact with my critique partners. I whine about not being one of those authors with a million stories screaming to get out of her head, and it's true. I'm not. But even I have stories to tell.

And so do you.

Maybe not stories the whole world is clamoring to read...but someone, someday, will. Mainly, your children...and their children...and, hopefully, even their children.

One of the greatest gifts ever given to me was a story written by my Aunt Bonnie. About fifteen years before she passed away, she sent me ten handwritten pages recounting the brief span of time in which she knew my mother who died at the age of 41. I still smile as I remember this part of what she wrote:

"When your older brother was born, your mother constantly hovered over his crib, clapping her hands to make sure he hadn't gotten the Gorder family's poor hearing."

I never would have had that glimpse into my mother's life if Aunt Bonnie hadn't written it down.

Yesterday, I wanted to add intelligent narrative to the pictures of my dad and his P-38, but the details I know about my dad's war time experiences are sketchy. I know he was stationed in Foggia, Italy...I know he arrived there on a boat...I know he flew over Yugoslavia...but that's about it.

I'm gonna ask him to write the stories down...for me, and for my niece's kids.

What stories should YOU be writing down?