How do we begin?

Life story interviews take place in your home or in a quiet location where concentration is possible.  

We first get acquainted and talk about the ideas you have for telling your life story. Then, together, we develop a focus and organize a general outline to guide us as the interview proceeds. Some preliminary considerations might be:

• Do you want your book to cover your whole life or particular periods of your life?

• Do you want to include highlights about your parents, grandparents or earlier ancestors' history?

• How much of the book do you want to focus on your life apart from that of your partner and/or children?

When you feel ready to begin the interviews, we record your story as it unfolds during a series of relaxed and comfortable sessions, keeping to a pace that works well for you.  

What have you gleaned from your travels?
(Old stave church in Norway)

What can you expect during the interviews?

Family letters from 1919 and 1946

You may want to tell your story over two or three days to allow time to say everything you feel is important to say.  

There is no need to relate incidents in precise chronological sequence, as the arrangement of material will be taken care of during the editing process.  

During the time the interviewing takes place, you may want to go over pictures, letters, recognitions and special memorabilia that you would like to include in your book.

It can be a daunting undertaking to tell your life story.

 Yet talking about your life is extremely rewarding
when an interviewer is engaged in helping you
draw forth the experiences of your past.  

The story of your life is filled with particulars—where you have lived, the schools you have attended, the work you've done, the people close to you.  All these are important in providing the structure of your life.  

Yet your life is much more than a series of events—it's also how you have come to understand the meaning and mystery of life.  It's the story of your seeking and what you've found.

What you remember over the course of your life may encompass a wide range of experiences and emotions, all significant in your life journey.  In telling your life story, you may even rediscover cherished friends and events you had completely forgotten about.

Not all memories are comfortable ones, of course.  
Reflecting on difficult times and putting them into a new perspective will often help you let go of any pain surrounding those memories.  In that regard, you will pass on a gift to your family— the realization that one can live through and learn from the tough times. 

Telling your life story is also a gift you give yourself, for the process of revisiting your life can be profoundly satisfying.

"Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away."

—Dinah Craik, A Life for a Life (1859)

"Still question'd me
    the story of my life
       from year to year,
the battles, sieges, fortunes
   I have passed."

—William Shakespeare, Othello