Usually the voice fades away first

My mother died in 1996 when I was 25. She had a voice that was less than easy on the ears. Actually, it could practically split your head apart. When she was adamant about something, good or bad, her voice would reach this pitch that only ciccadas could understand.I no longer can recreate my mom’s voice in my own head. She has been dead long enough now that the intricacies of her voice have faded from memory. This saddens me because it seems like an integral part of who she actually was and, now that it is gone, a piece of her has left me too.

There are pictures of my mom and me in different stages of my growing up. I probably have four or five albums full, but they can’t hear her voice when I look at them. I have one video clip from Christmas in 1993 that captures three seconds of my mom speaking and moving around. I really treasure that.

This is the reason Joanna and I started the The Video Biography Company four years ago. We are on a mission, encouraging people to document their family history. Virtually everyone now has access to some sort of video camera and it is simpler to document than ever before.

Stories are held in people’s heads and once the people are gone the story usually is too. I remember most of the stories my mother told of her life and I will pass them on to my own children, but it is not the same. Those stories were told better in her voice, but my children will not have that joy. Even if her voice made your ears bleed, it was her voice and I loved it.