Reflection Title: The Grandma Diaries!
Book – To Hell and Back by Audie Murphy
Book Description:
The classic bestselling war memoir by the most decorated American soldier in World War II. Originally published in 1949, To Hell and Back was a smash bestseller for fourteen weeks and later became a major motion picture starring Audie Murphy as himself. Desperate to see action but rejected by both the marines and paratroopers because he was too short, Murphy eventually found a home with the infantry. He fought through campaigns in Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany. Although still under twenty-one years old on V-E Day, he was credited with having killed, captured, or wounded 240 Germans. He emerged from the war as America's most decorated soldier, having received twenty-one medals, including our highest military decoration, the Congressional Medal of Honor. To Hell and Back is a powerfully real portrayal of American GI's at war.
Reflection:
I have 2 incredible grandmothers! I’m blessed to be 38 years old and still have both of my grandmothers still with me in my life and doing fantastic.
This year of magical learning journey has truly opened my eyes to the beauty of humanity and has made me infinitely curious to want to learn from as many people as I can. I’ve mostly been doing that through books, but a few months ago, Emilia helped me to remind me of the treasure trove of learning opportunity that I had at my fingertips in my 2 85+ year old grandmothers.
My grandmothers have seen some stuff, lived some stuff, and have endured through it all over their almost 90 years of experience on this Earth. I figured it was about damn time for me to turn my attention to learning from my grandmothers while I was still blessed to have that opportunity with them here with us.
Many months ago, I stumbled upon this website called Storyworth. Storyworth is a platform that helps people to capture their life stories and turn them into a personalized book. They send you a question each week, you write your answer, and then after a year of this they compile it and turn all the responses into a book to send back to you. I loved this concept so much as it summed up of so much of the essence of the Year of Magical Learning experience around reflecting and sharing with the ones you love the most.
I thought this idea sounded like such a good one that I reached out to my grandmothers and offered to buy this service for them as a gift so I could selfishly get them to document their lives, turn it into a book, and then I would be able to read it and learn from them long after they are gone. I sent them both a text one night and pitched the idea, the response was…MEH!
They both said to me, “It sounds neat, but I don’t want to sign up for a writing project for an entire year.” Then one of them said, “If you want to learn about our lives, just come on over and let’s have a chat. We’re available any time you want!” I thought to myself…touché grandma, touché.
While coming over to their houses more regularly to learn about their lives was a solution, it wasn’t a solution that would allow me to capture and document their stories to share with others. I wanted my children, and my children’s children, and their children’s children to be able to learn about their great, great, great grandmother’s lives directly from the source.
I thought, how could I do try to solve both puzzles where they got to share their stories personally with me and I could still capture and document it in an easy format to share with others? And then it hit me…video chat!
I went back to them with a new proposition. I offered to personally interview them once a week via a video chat where I would ask them a question about their life and sit back and listen. They said that sounds fun and agreed to do it. We are now 8 weeks in and having a blast with this project. I’m learning a ton from them and about them through this process.
So, what in the hell does this have to do with To Hell and Back by Audie Murphy? Well, I learned that To Hell and Back is one of my Grandmother Sears’ favorite books while interviewing her and asking a totally different question. I thought, well let’s see what this is all about and I can’t wait to talk to her about it in our next session once I finish it.
It is amazing where life will take you if you stay open and let your curiosity guide the way. I never in a million years would have read this story without this learning journey I’ve been on with my grandmother. While the story was riveting, intense, and a bit terrifying, what I learned from it has nothing to do with the book itself. What I learned was how fun it was to share a tiny piece of a common experience with my grandmothers because I had the courage to dedicate some time to ask about their lives.
That is pretty incredible!
Question: What might you learn about the people you love the most if you had the courage to ask?
Links:
What is The Year of Magical Learning? - An Introduction
YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon
YOML Bookstore - To Hell and Back by Audie Murphy
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