GENERATIONS 

The Story Teller, A testimonial

Everyone has a story; your life and experiences are unique. They are special and worth remembering. You have done things in your life that are of great interest to others even if you didn’t think so before. You are you and your story is important. Our world and our lives are changing more and more rapidly. Children’s lives today bear little resemblance to your childhood. What did you do before TV and the internet? Did you walk to school or ride a horse? In the past most families spent time on a relative’s family farm, did you? How were holidays spent? Did you run free? Or climb a tree in the backyard? How was the shopping done? What were your favourite games? Who were your best friends? How is it all so different from our busy lives today? What about those old photos, what memories do they bring back? What about your teenage years - where did you hang out, who with? Do you have family pictures? Do you want your old, damaged photos brought to life, and coloured, if you want? Getting your story down can be a hugely rewarding experience as well as a lot of fun. Many people have said it’s the best thing they’ve done as it renewed connections with friends and maybe relatives and even teachers they had lost track of over the years.

But maybe you hadn’t thought to write it down? Maybe you don’t know where to start? Let me assure you, help is at hand. Ian Handricks, Webmaster at North Shore SeniorNet wants to help you get your story done. You think you don’t have time? Ian is prepared to sit with you, work with you and get all those fragmented memories, bits of paper, old letters and notes – and photos – into a cohesive whole that you will be thrilled with. Ian is an amazing researcher. In a few minutes, with the sketchiest of information from you, Ian can give you details of your forebears and their lives that you would never have discovered on your own. He can probably find photos of your old school, where you were born, where you grew up. So many possibilities. You owe it to yourself to give it a try now before details become harder and harder to find.

I speak from experience. Ian collated an enormous amount of material for my husband’s family history, and his autobiography, and prepared them for publication online. He added many photos to the narrative which already included details of the family surviving the Great Depression. The social lives of the seven children and their parents make fascinating reading and his story, like yours will be, is a very important part of the history of our country or the country you came from. Having your story in print is an option you can choose or not. I cannot recommend Ian’s helpfulness and his work too highly.

Ian is helpful, accessible, available, extraordinarily capable in research, photo restoration and has a host of other skills. He has already helped many hundreds of families tell their own stories and many of those have proudly printed their finished work.  The proof of the pudding is in the eating and I believe you should take up this offer, look at some of the books that have been printed and grab a chat with Ian as soon as you can. He works out of the SeniorNet room by the Sushi place In Shea Terrace, Takapuna.