Questions worth asking, before the answers go
Every family has stories that only one person still knows how to tell. These are the questions that get them said out loud, and written down while there is still time.
Your Parents' Story
Your parents have told you the same five stories for thirty years. There is a whole decade in there they have never mentioned. This is how you get to it.
25 Questions to Ask Your Parents, and How to Actually Ask Them
Most people ask their parents the wrong question and conclude their parents do not want to talk. Here are twenty five that work, and the way to ask each one.
11 min read
Your Missionary's Story
A mission journal has about forty entries and enormous gaps. What actually changed them is almost never the part that got written down.
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Your Veteran's Story
Most families reduce a veteran's whole service to one sentence. He will fill in the rest if somebody asks properly, and almost nobody ever does.
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Your Kids and Your Marriage
Your kids know you as parents. They have no idea you were once two people trying to decide whether to risk it on each other.
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Your Own Story
You are the one who keeps track of how every family story is supposed to go. Nobody appointed you to that, and nobody has written yours down.
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Making the Book
Two decisions ruin most home-printed family books, and both are easy to get right once somebody tells you what they are.
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