Losing the Ranch: Taking Time to Tell the Challenging Stories

This week, we are taking time to tell the challenging stories in Ali Edward's Yesterday & Today class. Ali says that you never have to tell any story you don't want too, and I agree. But I also believe you have to listen to your gut and tell the ones you know need to be told. You know they will answer questions from your children or grandchildren one day down the road. You know your struggle was great, the pain difficult, but the story insists on being told. I believe that is where I am going with my own personal challenging story, but I'm not quite ready to embrace it. And who knows, maybe I will take Ali's advice and let sleeping dogs lie. But somehow I don't think that's what will happen in the end. I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve and my scrapbooking reflects it.


So I decided I would work on my husband's challenging story layout first (I am doing all assignments and projects in this class for both my husband and I). Truth be told, I chose this story for him. It's one he tells on a regular basis and has definitely shaped his life. I also asked him to think strongly about whether or not there is another challenging story he would like told, since I chose this one for him.


We had a nice evening, working on a respective hobbies and I "interviewed" him about his memories and experiences from losing the ranch on which he spent his early childhood years. At first he didn't give me much detail, maybe only 3 or 4 sentences. So I continued to ask him questions like "did you get to take anything with you?" "what did the trailer look like?" and so forth. After a bit of prompting the memories and thus the stories started flowing.


It was a neat experience to watch the story come to life. We are also fortunate enough to have a photograph of the ranch. Andy actually took the photograph when he was in college from the highway nearby. He said everything still looks the same. I wonder if it's still that way today.


In the end, we are both pleased with the result and I am happy we were able to capture a challenging story that helped shape my husband's life. It is incredibly gratifying to put together a layout that is truly special and to see my husband happy about it.