My dear mum died in march last year aged 93 and like your mother slid into the abyss of dementia ,It is so important to record the details of their experiences . My mum had very poor origins and it didn't get a lot better. Both of her siblings died at or just after birth and mum must have been only 3 yet she had an amazing recollection of a childish remark she made at the time .She attended St Marks School in Belgrave where because she was left handed her left arm was tied behind her back to force her to write with her right hand! She was a" runner" for The Wolsey at the age 14 and Her family were the second ones to move into a new council house on Stevenson Drive .Luxury she said "our own toilet" I have a few recordings of general conversations and her singing but at the next family do i will initiate conversations about mum and dad and record them to transcribe later. Graham ---Original Message----- From: Louis Mills Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2012 6:38 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [LEI] Recording memories It's appropriate to capture these memories. One thing I did to capture some of my mother's memories before her death was to write down some questions and tape record a session with her. My mother was in her 20s when World War II started and lived near Trafalgar Square in London for a few years while serving as a WAAF. It was not as easy to do as I had hoped. My mum was showing signs of early Alzheimer's. Her memory of her youth was strong, but she'd quickly forget the questions I had asked. I noticed, too, that her accent thickened the further back we went in time. And she mumbled more. She cried during a lot of it, even when the events were pleasant ones. I was very uncomfortable, but stuck with it. She had been in a teenage dance troupe that toured England, Clifton's Cabaret Kids, an had once been in a show with Louis Armstrong. She remembered him vividly, although she wasn't on the stage at the same time as he. My mum took a job in a chocolate shop as a young woman, thinking she'd love to be able to sample the wares they sold. But she said that after a week, she couldn't stand the smell of chocolate any more and left after three weeks. It was years before she could eat chocolate again. So I'm recommending everyone on the list find mum or dad or some relative willing to talk about the old times, record them and save it for prosperity. It would be great if you could save it on the Internet in a Portable Document file, maybe with a few photos, but the tape itself will be worth more than gold to you after this person passes on. Lou ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message