What I really did last month...

Devri had a vision of doing a book all about my dad's heritage as a gift for him last spring, for Father's day.  Then we decided to wait until his birthday in July.  THEN, we decided we should aim for Christmas.  I remember Devri lamenting that we just didn't have very much information or photos (compared to the book we had done for my mom a couple years ago) and then inspiration struck me - I should go visit my Great Aunt and Uncle who live in the SLC area and see if they had any pictures or stories to add to our special book.  We hit a gold mine and I came home with some amazing photos of my Grandpa growing up, and his grandparents and his great-grandparents too.  She also had short biographical sketches about my great grandparents, my great-great grandparents and even more.  It was a gold mine and I was giddy!  Suddenly names were becoming real people - and these real people were a part of me.  I loved learning their stories and about their immigration to the United States and about their conversions to the LDS Church.  

I spent many hours listening to a cassette-tape of my dad interviewing my great-grandmother and transcribing it word-for-word.  I remember her and to hear her voice and laugh, I could barely keep it a secret from my dad.  I contacted other cousins of my dad to try to get more info - and everyone was willing to help.  I wanted to tell him everything I was learning about his parents, his grandparents, and so forth.  It was hard to keep it contained but, I did it.  Devri and I spent hours upon hours working on this project - we were a team effort at our home computers.  I'd enter in info and I'd think - "that page looks good, I hope Devri likes that..." then I'd come back a day or two later and you would see Devri magic all over - suddenly the pages were beautiful and looked 200 x's better than when I'd last seen them!  It was fun for us to work together and to make something that we knew would mean a lot to my dad.  Even better was the surprise of how much it meant to me personally.  The book turned out to be more than 110 pages - it's packed full of stories, photographs, and memories.  A couple of favorite parts:

My Great-Grandmother Della and her family

-Transcribing Della's interview with my dad.  She lived to be 98 years old and I remember visiting her in her home as a young girl.  I believe the interview was when she was 92 and even then she was funny, witty, and full of personality - and that was on an audio cassette tape!  That woman was a go-getter!

My Grandpa and Grandma

My grandpa died when I was 5 years old.  I don't remember him personally - but to be able to read portions of his journal, learn more about his childhood, and to see all those photographs were very endearing.  He was a very good man.  I knew my grandma and it was especially fun to have everyone write their memories of her.  We all remembered different little things about playing at her house or the way she loved us - but it just felt like a big grandma hug.  She too, was a remarkable woman.

Our afghans

One of my favorite pages in the book was a little insert about our special afghans made by Grandma.  She made one for each grandchild and we all have them still.  That's a grandma hug too.

The revealing

Of course, the high point of our little project was giving it to my dad.  When we had our family Christmas - we started with his gift first.  We managed to get all my siblings there electronically (Facetime) - we all wanted to see him cry.  And he did.  

Thank you Devri for having the vision and the perseverance to make it happen.  And a big shout-out to my Aunt Martie for her help as well as my Great Aunt Donna and cousins Larry and Kelly.  It was an exciting adventure and one of the best gifts I have ever been a part of!