My Dad is 87 in a couple of weeks. My husband and I visit him as often as we can. He is reasonably healthy and fit. My sister Trissie and her husband Leon live with him and cook most of his evening meals. As with most men, he is difficult to buy for as he has all he wants. He usually is happy with some scratchies or unusual pickled food. At Christmas time, I was browsing through the gift section on one of my favourite sites fishpond.com and came across "Grandparent's Journal". I thought it would be the ideal gift for him as he had used an old diary to write his short story. There is a lot my Dad never talked about when we were younger. Now he likes to talk quite a lot about past years which he would have found difficult when he was younger. Things like the war and his struggles of every day life. Here a link to his story http://beingme4u.blogspot.com/p/family.html.
I thought the journal was the perfect gift because it asks questions like, "where did your mother's family come from" and other questions about childhood memories. Questions that you don't think to ask your Dad when your talking with him. It has worked out perfectly too because I am currently doing the Brisbane_Smith genealogy which I started after Christmas from a conversation with my niece's husband Gary. I am hoping Dad can fill in the missing gaps with our family tree and I can add some interesting stories. One story he often talks about is, he had an opportunity to be a boxer in the Olympic Games. I am hoping he will write in down before his memories are lost. Take opportunities while you can...
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