Capturing memories before they're gone

One of the inspirations for Northern Life Stories was my experience with my own Grandmother. She died in 2018 aged 94. We all thought she would live to the age of a hundred. She was a passionate and caring Grandmother. Someone I knew called her fierce but I never saw her that way. Her fierceness came from a desire to make sure that we were all doing ok and wanting to know we were safe. One weekend in 2004, I headed up to her home in Longframlington and completed a comprehensive family tree with her. It was one of the most precious weekends I had with her. We talked until the small hours and ploughed through her photo albums, diving back into history. My Gran was able to tell me about her family heritage and stories which rang through the centuries like a bell. She was famous for her slide shows: images from her own life which she had carefully curated. Many a neighbour got trapped in her house well into the night as she drew out another box of slides and proudly showed off her photos from the 70s onwards!

Ella Thwaites at her 90th birthday party in 2012

On that all too short weekend I spent with my Gran, I typed as fast as my fingers could handle, trying to keep up with her pictures and stories and trying to make sure no information was lost. There were the Cumbrian farm stories: the man in the barn with a gun and the Italian prisoner of war who laboured the fields (who after the war made fine tailoring for the family and who's daughter I met at my Gran's funeral in 2018). We explored the history of her father's ancestors who were involved in creating the early Linoleum industry in the North West of England. We wondered at the photos of Victorian family members who had learning disabilities. She was razor sharp and able to tell me about her aunts, whose fine teenage needlework was hanging on the walls in the hallway.

Sadly, my 2004 laptop suffered a disaster and I foolishly had not backed up the information. Thankfully I had a print out of the family tree, but the essence of the stories were gone. If there was a cloud back then I didn't know about it!

A number of years passed before I could block out the time to re-trace our steps and undertake the task again. I enjoyed my weekend just as much, however I noticed that many of the stories were lost from her mind. She now knew fragments of stories and she couldn't identify many of the people in her photo albums. She didn't have dementia but her mind just no longer retained the information.

With Northern Life Stories I hope to help families to reconnect and save stories that may otherwise be lost to time. We all love a good story, they're what makes life feel more tangible, they're what we share at the pub and at the match, in the corner shop and outside the front door with the neighbours. Stories are the beating heart of those quick chats in the market square in Morpeth, by the pier in Blyth and outside the Abbey in Hexham. Why not let me join you in capturing those memories before its too late?

Northern Life Stories: in memory of Ella Thwaites.