Life story writing

I sit down with people and record their life stories.
“Her Story, His Story, Their Story – This Is Me”
It starts with a moment of recognition.
You realise this is a whole life sitting in front of you. Not only for family, also for the people who have worked alongside them, volunteered with them, learned from them, or looked up to them.
So we make the time.
We sit down and talk.
Life, work, regrets, love, what counted, what did not. The kind of conversation people mean to have and rarely get to.
They go back to the beginning.
You meet them as a young person.
A parent, a colleague, a mentor, someone you thought you knew, appears on the page at the start of their life, making decisions, working things out, building a life.
The story is written down.

Most people know someone through the role they hold in their life.
A parent. A grandparent. Someone they work with. Someone they volunteer with. Someone they have admired. Someone they see as a role model.
This process shifts that.
You see where they started. What they stepped into. What they took on. What they chose.
You begin to understand why they think the way they do. Where their values come from.
A life that was known in one way is now seen in full.

These stories carry the moments family and community hold onto.
A decision someone made. A way they responded. The small details that tell you who they were.
A grandfather going off to war. A mother holding things together during a difficult time. A teacher who changed the direction of a life.
These are the stories people go back to when they want guidance or perspective.
What would she have done.
What would he have said.
That voice is there when a decision needs to be made.
The voice you trust.
Once these stories are written down, that voice is there for the next person who needs it.

“I have often felt guilty for not writing my story. It always felt too hard.
Lynne asked the questions, listened to the answers and recorded everything without asking me to write a word. Her genuine interest in my story meant a great deal, and her ability to bring it together leaves me in awe.”

Lesley East