I am looking for women who have gathered their mothers' stories.
Have you interviewed or recorded your mother telling her stories? Did you delve through her journals, interview other family members, write your own memories of your mother or mother-figure? If you said yes to any of these, I'd love to talk with you about it. Would you be willing to talk with me on the phone?
Doing the work to gather our mothers' stories can be so powerful and I want to share this with more women. I know each time I sit down with my mom and the recorder I come away with big insights. I believe we learn deep truths about ourselves, our mothers and our grandmothers when we ask for their stories. And yet, this is not an easy thing to do. It takes time, planning, and patience. And sometimes it doesn't even work out. I want to hear those stories too.
What is this for? Right now I am in the research phase and planning to write about the experiences we've had in this process. This might be for a future blog post or a series. Perhaps it will fit into the podcast I'm scheming. I'm dreaming about a book down the road too. I don't have a for sure answer to this question yet, but I'm excited! I'd love it if you joined me in this story exploring adventure.
Will you share your experience with me?
Her story
and what it means to you.
Let's start a conversation. You can tell me just a little bit or all the juicy details. We might chat by email or on the phone.
Some of the questions I might ask you:
- What motivated you to interview your mother or mother-figure?
- What did you gain from the experience of interviewing her?
- Was she reluctant? How did you convince your mom to sit for the interview(s)?
- What were some of your challenges? What frustrated you about this process?
- What was a question you were afraid to ask?
- Was there anything she said that you wish you hadn't heard?
- Was anything off the table, not up for discussion?
- What burning question did you have for her?
- What new story or insight about your mother did you learn?
- Did you laugh your heads off together? What was the story?
- What did you learn about yourself in this process?
- Did this experience change the way you see your mother or your relationship with her?
- If you couldn't interview your mom, how else did you gather her stories?
- What impact did your mother's stories have on you?
- What impact did your mother's stories have on your family?
My name is Meghan Vigeant
and I'm a writer, oral historian, and lover of stories. I help people to save their personal stories as books and audio memoirs for family, friends, and future generations. I am interested in how others connect through personal stories.
Learn more about Meghan and the work she does at Stories To Tell.