Interviewing Grandpa

I was able to interview grandpa this afternoon. As I mentioned in an earlier post, his health isn't very good. He has someone staying with him 24/7 at his home because he's too weak to take care of himself. However, I talked with him for an hour and a half about his life and then we looked at some pictures after that. He can certainly still carry on a good conversation.

I tried to ask questions that would lead to a story for my digital writing piece. Of course, I've always loved listening to grandpa's stories, but I really wanted to find a purpose this afternoon. I wanted to know more about the hows and whys of his life. He's very hard of hearing and I have a feeling that half the time he just guesses at what you're saying but we got by. The longer I was talking with him the more I realized that the answers I hoped to learn were not going to come. He talked about what he did but not the why. I heard a lot of stories about where he traveled, what he'd seen, and stories about his friends. The friend stories is when he really lit up. He would laugh at the situations him and his friends would get into and that's when I started to really think about what's important.

Is it really important or a big mystery why he sought out education and left his home in order to make a living? Maybe. But I started thinking about my own life and the memories that I cherish. It's not the work that I've done that truly touches me. Don't get me wrong. I take some pride in a few of my accomplishments I've had over the years, but I have a deeper connection with the memories of family and friends. It could be the most pointless story like the time in high school when I was driving a couple of my friends around town and my car horn got stuck. I will still laugh hysterically at the whole incident, but really there was no great meaning to it in my life. It's just a great memory that I made with a couple of great friends.

So now I'm thinking I need to refocus my digital story as one that deals with relationships and why they are so important in our lives. I'm not sure. I'm going to talk to my Aunt Rita on Saturday morning. I know that she'll be more clear when I ask her specific questions just because I think she's in better health than grandpa is and she'll understand more of where I'm coming from. Maybe my digital story should be about my journey to find out more about these two important figures in my life and what I've learned. Yes. I think that might be where this heads.