Your Life Story Journal

Every family has that one relative with the best stories. How Lolo courted Lola. What the town looked like before the highway. The job he quit on the spot. You've heard them at every Noche Buena, and you keep meaning to write them down.

Your Life Story is a guided memory journal that finally gets them on paper. The hard part of telling a life story is the blank page. So this book hands over the questions, one page at a time, specific enough to answer over a cup of coffee.

It follows the shape of a life across thirteen chapters: early beginnings, school days, coming of age, love and friendship, work, home and family, adventures, hard times, beliefs, favorites, the world they've seen, reflections and legacy, and a final section in their own words. There's no required order. Start anywhere, skip what doesn't fit, and let spelling and grammar go. If writing is hard, someone else can hold the pen while the storyteller talks.

What's inside

• 13 chapters of guided prompts — from earliest memories to the lessons that stayed
• Specific questions — the first paycheck, the naughtiest thing done in school, the song that's "theirs"
• Favorites and "just for fun" pages — the small details families love most later
• Pages on hard seasons and what helped — handled gently, answered only if they want to
• A letter to their younger self and a message to a great-grandchild
• "A memory I want to keep" and "a letter to someone I love" pages at the end
• A gift letter page at the front — so the person giving it can say why

It's for grandparents and parents whose stories you don't want to lose, retirees with time to reflect, and anyone who wants to write their own story for the next generation. Families often give it on a 60th or 70th birthday, or on a quiet visit home, then fill it in together one Sunday at a time.

Someday someone will ask, "What was Lola like when she was young?" This book will have the answer, in her own words.