A story about the living and the dead (what a concept)

  Chapter 6 is called "Researching Your Topic". This weeks question is to find a concept within this chapter and discuss it. I've recently been exposed to a situation, not necessarily covered in this chapter but related to research that I'll blog about. Hopefully, I'm still within the confines of the academic expectations for the week. If not, maybe this is more of a group therapy blog than anything.
  My mother died about 10 days ago. We were an estranged family and I was the only member of the family that stayed in touch with her. I had agreed to be her executor (the one charged with handling her affairs when she dies). This has become a monumental task. See, mom was a hoarder. Yes, just like on TV, she collected crap and even other peoples crap. My wife and I went up to Oregon last week to start the process of what to do when someone dies and you have to sort out their affairs. This has been the worst case scenario for such an event. Not only did she not have a will, whatever and whoever she was was buried in an ocean of boxes, stacks of paper and magazines and animal excrement. UGH!
  How I'm relating this catastrophe to our class is this; even though my mom kept everything, we have found many items of our families heritage never known before among all her saved belongings. In a sense, we are doing a reverse research project (kind of) into who my family was. It may be more of an archaeological dig (my sister calls it "The Big Dig") than research. But whn you look at how the word is defined, maybe this does apply. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines research as:

1: careful or diligent search

2: studious inquiry or examination; especially: investigation or experimentation aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts, revision of accepted theories or laws in the light of new facts, or practical application of such new or revised theories or laws

3: the collecting of information about a particular subject

   Part of our research was that, among so many pictures, documents and files, we found my mother's journals. What a tortured soul she was. She shed some light on how she was treated by my dad. What a jerk! But, she's not an innocent person either as she well documented. Kind of explains the alcoholism she had and the disfunctional way of life we all had growing up.

  About a year before my wife's grandmother died in 2007, my father-in-law took my video camera and did an interview with her about her life. We researched what questions to ask, told her what most of the questions were (he wanted to capture a couple candid responses) and set about recording her "life" for future generations to see.What a great idea. What a video.

 My advice is  that it's easier to research your lineage when people are alive than when they're dead. Read chapter 6, go "interview" your family before it's too late. Ask questions about who they were or wanted to be? Were they happy growing up? What were their favorite memories,? What do they want done when they die? Do they have a will or a trust? Do they have any special wishes with their stuff when they're gone? Or, whatever you can think of.  Write all the information down you can so you can pass it along to those who may be interested.

   Thanks for listening.

 

F.D.