My Life Story

There is so much to celebrate in life, and yet we

remember so little of what happens.  We are admonished

to record in journals what happens in our lives and then

to write our life stories in our church.  

I decided this year would be a great year to get that

published, with my sixtieth birthday.  I can always

write volume two later!  

In 2000, I started writing my life story, and printed it

out.  I used journals, and planning calendars and day timers

that we had kept over the years.  That really helped, as it

gave me specific dates and activities.  Now we keep everything

on our phones, and having had phones and computers crash,

all of that is lost.  I couldn't have produced a lot of what

I was able to write based on memory alone.

I finished the majority of the writing that year,

but continued to add to it.  

Those who follow me regularly know that this past

year and a half I have written and published numerous

life stories of both of my parents, my grandparents,

my aunt, my mother's and father's love letters to

each other, and my mother's short stories.

After doing my parents' books, I realized that the pictures

tell half of the story, so to complete my life story, I had

to dig through all of my pictures, my files, my discs

and add photos to my life story.  That was as much work

as the writing, but I scanned hundreds of pictures into

the computer, and then cropped and edited them so 

they could help tell the story.

I had the good fortune of reading someone's blog

and they recommended using Lulu.com to

publish their blog.  I tried Lulu out before I had

even finished writing my dad's life story.  I wanted

to see how their work was.

Of course, you know I was thrilled.  I could print

one or one hundred, I could edit and add to, I could

receive discount flash sale coupons, I could send others

to their site to order these family history books.

It was as simple as creating a word document and

turning it into a PDF file as you save it on the 

computer.  

The completed book has 520 pages in it.  It started

with 320 before the pictures were added.  Of course, I

would have loved to have made most of the pictures

larger, as they are my favorite part, but it was already

too big.  This book was so large, that I had to

upload it in two parts, but it worked perfectly.

The cost for the book would have been $100, but 

Lulu.com offers one day flash sales throughout the

year - usually 20-30 percent.  On Black Friday, they

offer their best sale, and that was 40 percent, so the

book cost me $60.  I made one for each of my children

and gave them to them as a gift.  As I told my family,

even if you don't read it, look at the pictures - they will

tell a lot of the story.

Start to write your life story now, as people you would

want to talk to and ask questions will be gone.  Your memory

gets overloaded, and you forget.  

As my husband loves to say, "Those who are remembered

are those who are published."  Let generations to come

know who you were and what you believed and did.

What would you give to have written documents

of those who went before you?  Maybe they came

across the plains, or maybe they crossed the ocean.

I hope you get inspired to write your own

life story and publish it.