I guess it seemed fitting as I attended the funeral service and saw the casket draped with an American Flag. After all, Veterans Day was just last week. Wells Maudsley was my parents’ age and I’d known him for most of the 20 years we lived in the same neighborhood and attended the same church. His obituary spoke of his service as a Chief Warrant Officer during World War II. Watching that casket go by turned my thoughts to another veteran, my uncle Gordon Chamberlain who passed away in 2007. That led to thoughts of his sister, my Aunt Eleanor Morse who just died a couple of months ago.

We are losing the greatest generation too darn fast! I had plans to interview my aunt about her grandfather and the stories she had heard about him, but I delayed. Now her sister is the only one left of my mother’s generation; the only one who can still share the stories that were told of her grandfather, who died 96 years ago. There must be some interesting stories about Dr. Chamberlain. After all, his own son, my grandfather, told my mother (born four years after the good doctor died), that if there was one grandparent she did not need to have known, it was him!

How we all need those stories of our ancestors! According to the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs, we’re losing about 1800 veterans each day! Think of the history we’re losing; in particular, the history of your own family. I’ll always treasure the visits I had with Wells and the loving remembrances of him I heard from his family at his funeral. But, it’s sad to think that I know more of my neighbor’s stories than my uncle, who lived one to two thousand miles away from me for virtually all my life. He was a great man and I think the world of his daughters, but we don’t have his stories of his life during the most momentous 87 years of the world’s history.

I’m glad that, over three decades ago, I asked my other uncle to interview his mother on cassette tape. I sent him three hours of tapes and a booklet of questions. When he ran out of tape before the questions ran out, he bought more tape. I have over seven hours of the two of them talking about her life and courtship back in the 1890s and later. Precious!

What are you doing to preserve the stories of your family? With the holidays coming up, let’s make sure those stories get preserved. You’ll regret it if you don’t.