Touching Tomorrow: How to Interview Your Loved Ones to Capture a Lifetime of Memories on Video or Audio

by Mary LoVerde

What does your mother remember
about her first kiss?
What's the first thing your father
tells himself every morning?
By the time we are adults, it is all too easy to look at our parents and grandparents as though their lives have been miles removed from our own, causing a communication and generation gap seemingly impossible to bridge. But the older we get, the more we understand the importance of connecting with our elders before they're gone. There is no better way to do this than to talk to them like you never have before and create a record of their lives to share with the next generation.
Showcasing over 200 questions that are sure to help you know your loved ones better than you ever dreamed, Touching Tomorrow contains everything you need to record your family's most valuable their wisdom, humor, and love.
With tips on preparing both yourself and your elders for the technical and emotional process, helpful hints on coaxing shy or reluctant family members to participate, and heartwarming real life stories from people who have already preserved their elders' memories on tape, this is an invaluable guide to creating a precious family heirloom -- one that will truly touch tomorrow.

140 pages, Paperback

First published June 7, 2000

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outdated? I don't think so. Sure technology has increased...but the minute a book is published, this will again be the case. (Besides this book is not about technology, and it's value will never diminish.)

I've had my eye out for another book of this type and have not yet come upon it. So when I found this in my (embarrassingly-too-large) pile(s) of books that I will read "someday"...and was specifically looking for something that wasn't miles thick, this was a pleasant find. Honestly, I wasn't even expecting to like it as much as I did. But, it was great.

I already thought capturing some of lifetime's memories would be valuable, but this book increased those feelings for me. Very motivating!

The author is quite likable, too.

[Charles · Rating 1 out of 5]

The info in this book is good and the personal anecdotes are helpful, but it suffers from three major flaws:
(1) Nearly all the actual information and advice can be found for free online. See e.g. the Smithsonian or the UNC Southern Oral History Program guides;
(2) It's pretty lightweight. 130 pages, small book, high line spacing.
(3) By now (it was published in 2000) it is very dated. To be of actual use now it really needs to discuss digital recording options in particular and a broader range of equipment options more generally.

While it was probably a fairly decent resource in 2000, there is no reason to get this book in 2010.

[Allan Leonard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads as a piece of motivation, which is no bad thing. You could just skip to the interview questions -- the core value of the book -- but it takes hardly any time to read the preceding chapters. The book's compact size makes it easy to keep with you for any family interview opportunity.

[Literary Mama]

When my mom and her sister decided they could no longer care for their mom, they moved her into a nursing home. Although I had visited with Grandmom often and we had great conversations, I never thought to capture her story—probably because she practically raised me and I thought I always knew her story. It wasn't until she passed that I realized I didn't know much about her childhood or her relationship with her eight siblings. I was in an MFA program at the time and I wanted to write about what life was like growing up with nine siblings in the 1920s, so I set up time to talk with and interview her four surviving siblings. Sometimes, the preparation that happens before someone sits down to write is even more important than the act of writing, so prior to the interview with my great-aunts and uncles, I researched online to find the best book to provide guidance for the interview process. I found Mary LoVerde's Touching Tomorrow. LoVerde's book is a six-part guide that offers practical and easy-to-implement advice on how to interview loved ones. LoVerde designed this book to help people capture the 'essence of who your loved one really is' by asking questions that 'evoke serious and heartfelt responses' and cover each stage of their life. She's sensitive to the fact that not everyone wants to be interviewed (and dedicates a whole chapter on multiple ways to help your loved ones understand the importance of building a legacy for future generations), and reminds interviewers to keep the questions fun and light and make it a conversation and not an interrogation. What was most helpful during the process were the questions LoVerde offered throughout the book, ones that I would have never thought to ask, from "What do you wish you had learned to do?' to 'Did you ever run away from home?"