It's NOT easy getting personal histories!

Essential invaluable priceless - yes.  
Easy simple effortless - NO!

Drove me nuts, reading the following "inspiration" from a highly regarded elder care expert:
Spend a day in a combo "scrapbooking," "personal history" and "NPR Story" day - interview your loved one (not interrogate!) about their lives, where they worked, lived, past loves, military history, and more. Encourage your children or grandchildren to participate (*maybe even as a "school assignment"). Ask about humorous nicknames, favorite places, military base installations, past jobs, wonderful memories, and so on.  

 A  day?  Seriously?  My mother was about as well spoken, articulate & coherent as they come ~and~ it took me days, over weeks, and countless cups of Darjeeling & nibblings to get her comfortable enough to even consider that anyone might be remotely interested in hearing about her earlier life.  

Friends & even pleasant acquaintances find that shocking, since they are familiar with the end result.  But getting there?  It took a combination of sheer determination, diplomacy & flat out sneakiness on my part to make it possible.

Yes, I confess to sneakiness.  I set up a tape recorder ahead of time, then lulled her into a story-sharing mood through several cups of tea, a plate of freshly baked scones, slathered with butter & jam.  She had no idea her memories were being recorded, but when I played them back for her that night, over a glass of wine with cheese & crackers, she experienced how others might be touched by her memories of being awakened from her never-missed afternoon nap by Ian popping a well-buttered scone he'd just baked into her mouth.  

REALITY CHECK:   You do NOT just sit down with anyone - especially an oldster or ancient - and expect them to immediately open up with his or her personal history.

 

I am clueless what she means when she recommends having an "NPR stor day."   Is she referring to This American Life?  To StoryCorps?  Those stories don't just happen - they are the result of A LOT of work experience expertise!  

Hey, it's not easy to replicate Ira Glass - the man has his Bachelors from Brown, in Semiotics!  

   

As for Dave Isay - the man has won six Peabody Awards for StoryCorps ~and~ he's a MacArthur fellow!!! 

And how many people have a clue about how to interview someone?  

Again, it takes a lot of work experience expertise to effectively/successfully interview someone, even if she is your grandma!  Especially if she is your grandma!