Personal Histories
Nobody wants to be forgotten. But when we pass away, our memories, the family tradition and culture we come from vanish unless we record and document them.
The interest in personal and family memoirs has grown dramatically in the last few years — especially since the baby boomers are reaching retirement age. Not only do they want to see their life stories recorded but their elderly parents’ memories as well. Here is where Legend Crafter can help.
Wouldn’t it be unthinkable if your grandchildren or children did not know your particular story? If they didn’t know your experiences as a very young child with your own parents? Of your struggles growing up, raising a family, of your life in business? Most likely, they will not know the story of your grandparents simply because so few families document these memories.
Having a collaborator such as Legend Crafter in telling your story allows you to explore thoughts, memories, insights and traditions without the added obstacle of becoming a writer yourself.
I have seen elderly people tell me their stories and their life has been transformed. Old wounds and family discord have been ameliorated by the mere process of sharing one story to a trusted collaborator.
Some of my clients have even use their memoir as the diving board to a published book.
With a skilled writer and Legend Crafter––with an international perspective––listening, asking questions, interested in your story, helping make connections, providing research, you can count on your story fulfilling your deepest longings.
BUT MY RELATIVE HAS PASSED AWAY.
Perhaps the person you want to remember and whose life you want to document has died. You and even your relatives and friends can meet with me to share your memories of that dear one.
Legend Crafter can help you by stimulating your memories of mother or father or Uncle Jack. I will assist you in collecting the memorabilia and photography that reflect his or her life. With my help, you and your family can create an album of your memories and pictures.
IT’S IMPORTANT.
In America, life moves so fast. People no longer live their lives in their birthplace. Grown children and their children move away. It is harder and harder to keep the family and family lore intact.
Documenting your life or supporting your parents to do so is vital to maintaining recollection of your family’s history that you can pass on to the next generations. Legend Crafter can help. To contact Francine Brevetti, call 415-397-7830.
A Family Memento
Let us say a member of your family has died and you want to commemorate his or her life.
Creating such a tribute can take many forms. Perhaps you and your relatives can agree to share your memories of this person with specific anecdotes.
“Remember the time when Mama and you…”
“I’ll never forget the look on your face when Uncle George came back from the car and…”
“And then there was a time when we were in Budapest looking for a restaurant and Dad said…”
I will be happy to interview you and your relatives as a group and/or individually to retrieve the richest and fullest account of your departed loved one.
This document will be amplified with any photographs and memorabilia you want to attach to it. Objects that were important to your deceased relative can be photographed as well. Even audio material can be included.
It can be produced as a book, a CD or a web site, or any combination of these media. The resources for self-publishing are abundant these days and we can use them to fulfill your family’s desires.
“The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude.”
-Thornton Wilder
Company Histories
YOUR COMPANY HAS HAD A LIFE, TOO
Your company is invested with your life’s blood — your time, your energy, your intelligence and your associations. As time passes, the narrative of how you managed that company or how your predecessors did is apt to be lost or forgotten.
It just happens. The Bank of America, Wells Fargo and other huge institutions keep archives. Most companies don’t.
It would be my honor to chronicle the history of your company, whether yours is a family-owned company, a publicly traded entity, or a nonprofit that you direct.
Firms or nonprofits with a long tradition have always intrigued me. I want to know what the dynamic was that has kept that organization vital, creative and productive over decades. Who were the personalities? What were the strategies and the challenges ?
One of my proudest achievements has been the history of America’s longest surviving Italian restaurant — the Fior d’Italia in San Francisco. The restaurant commissioned me to write its history so that the many legends, anecdotes and yarns that were spun since the restaurant’s founding in 1886 would not be lost.
The book, The Fabulous Fior — Over 100 Years in an Italian Kitchen, examines the financial, historical and human forces that shaped North Beach institution. You can visit its web site at www.fabulousfior.com.
I have been a business journalist since the late 1970s. I have written about hundreds of companies and interviewed innumerable chief executives, executive directors and other corporate officers.
It has been my privilege to interview executives when their companies were flush and when they were struggling. Domestic and overseas as well. I have investigated and written about startups, longtime institutions, the street corner mom-and-pop and, inevitably, failures. Many nonprofits have also been the subject of my research.
