Why Share Your Memories With Your Family
Video Journals Online conducts zoom interviews with clients to share their memories with friends and family members. Your family will cherish your life legacy. They will learn about your memories of your parents and grandparents and the life you’ve lived. Document and preserve your happy and sad times, your values, as well as the history you have lived that they will never experience. It is the most priceless legacy you can pass along. You’ve lived through a global pandemic with lockdowns, President Kennedy’s assassination, and 9/11. You lived a childhood without cell phones, video games, and even a remote control. We make it easy to document and preserve your life story from anywhere around the globe.
Real People. Real Life. Real Stories. Life Story Video Examples.
Personal Life Story Recollection (Oral History)
A Nostalgic Look At Life Before Cell Phones: Corner Pay Phones And Party Lines
A previously recorded interview with my mom about her childhood and telephones. Before WWII, her family had no home phone. You would use the pay phone outside the corner store. Having a home phone became a big thing when her sisters were teenagers. Bell Telephone needed to know you had a job and could afford to pay for a phone. The early home phones had party lines. You would know the call was for your home based on the number of rings. She did have a cell phone for many years before her death at 89 years of age.
Watching Her 23-Year-Old Daughter Die of Hepatitis B
This is a tragic memory where a mom shares watching her 23-year-old daughter die of Hepatitis B. At the time, there was nothing her co-workers at Bellevue Hospital could do. Liver transplants were being experimented with among animals. Mom would visit her in the hospital and talk to her, even when she was in a coma. Her daughter knew she was going to die. Mom regrets not speaking of her death with her other children, who were also suffering. Her faith in God helped her deal with her young daughter’s death. A friend advised her to focus on the good memories.
How I Got Fat Right Before High School
I had a book for shopping at the local grocery store and was responsible for getting food and cooking dinner for the family. Because we had an ice box, you went shopping often. Whenever my friend and I felt like some candy or other sweets, we would get whatever we wanted from that store. When my mom took me to get measured for my high school Catholic school uniform, I was a size 18. I had gotten fat and I didn’t care. Never heard of a diet. By my sophomore year, I lost so much weight that my uniform didn’t fit. But I had to make it work because you couldn’t afford to buy another uniform.
I Met My Wife At A Roller Skating Rink
This is a clip from my dad’s Video Journals interview in 1999. He shares his memory of meeting my mom at a roller skating rink. Roller skating rinks were very popular among young people for socializing with their peers. My mom was in high school, and my dad had just returned from the Marines. They married three years later.
Miserable Three Weeks at Summer Camp
Therese shares her recollection of a childhood summer camp she begged to go to with some friends. They hated it. They were homesick. The food was horrible. There were mosquitos, and the cabins had no windows. They talked about running away but didn’t know where they were. One of her friends convinced a counselor who went home at night to mail a postcard home and ask their mothers to come and get them. The friends’ mothers came, but Therese’s mom did not come. She was miserable there for three weeks and lost weight. Capturing Memories, Creating Legacies for family members.
A Year Volunteering At Daktari, South Africa
After her divorce, Pat Kelly chose to live and volunteer in Africa. This is the first of a few videos of her adventures: So PLEASE subscribe to see her future videos. In this video, she documents her experiences during her first year. She was the outreach manager at Daktari, an animal rescue facility in the middle of the bush. Her bedroom was a sanctuary for bush babies who would visit every night, and accordingly, her window stayed open every night. Pat loved her time there teaching children, caring for the animals, meeting volunteers from around the world, etc.
4 Year Old Builds Bonfire In The House
Capturing Memories, Creating Legacies. Margaret shares a frightening memory in her Video Journals interview. Tommy her 4-year-old almost set the house on fire. Luckily the house survived. This occurred while they were living in Cork, Ireland.
Stories About OUR DAD: His Legacy
4-minute clip. Three adult children share their memories about their dad’s life. They talked about his love of music, bringing a band to play at his daughters’ school, meeting the love of his life, etc. This life story tribute was shared with family members and friends before his Celebration Of Life memorial service.
Real People Life Stories: First Job Memories
5-minute clip In this video, I describe my first job as a vegetable girl. I hadn’t thought about my first job in many years. But, thinking about it brought back so many memories- first boyfriend, first alcoholic drink, handing over paychecks to my dad. Then a Video Journals Online client talks about his first job as a shoeshine boy at bus stops. $.25 to shine both shoes. If you paid extra, he would sing a song. He sings the song Anytime for us.
Learning To Drive A Car With A Stick Shift
5-minute clip of a Video Journals interview I conducted with my mom in 2002 when she was 73. Although it was a challenging experience, she was grateful to be able to drive and continued to do so until 85. She is no longer with us but we can listen to her life story and memories anytime.
Why I Retired At 70: Personal Recollection Oral History
11-minute clip of a Life Story video example. Quotes:
“Don’t retire to nothing.”
“The beauty of this time of life is that you can pursue interests and you can take a day of rest if you want. And you don’t have to set the clock if you don’t want to. And you can say yes to something when you want to say yes and no to something when you want to say no. And, it’s really a very fulfilling time if you have your health.”
Personal Pandemic Memories Janet Lopez From South Florida: March 2021
In this 7 min. video, Janet shares some of her Pandemic memories including the death of a 50-year-old friend in NY who died from the virus in the early days of the pandemic. She talks about having to travel to California during the lockdown to visit her hospitalized aunt who was dying of pancreatic cancer. Janet is concerned about how divisive our society has become- that even with a pandemic killing family members, friends, neighbors, and the elderly, we cannot seem to join together in a fight against a common enemy.