I have been listening to my grandpa's stories since I was a kid, but I'm not the only one who has. In birth order, I land squarely in the middle of his 11 grandchildren. All eleven of us grew up listening to tales about grandma, his hometown, serving in World War II, and everything in between, many times over. The same was true for each of his 8 children and their spouses. Add in his 11 siblings, countless friends, extended family, co-workers, and sometimes strangers, and you have yourself a storytelling machine.

As we got older, our griot continued to share and more details emerged. But, thanks to distance, there were only a handful of us around to hear them. I wanted to find a way to document those stories that we've all heard a million times, but still cherish, to cement his legacy for current and future generations of our family. So, after his okay, I set off on a month long listening session. What I found along the way was a much greater narrative to be heard; one of a universal human experience. The words as he delivered them could only be fully appreciated if heard from him directly. After a bit of brainstorming I added the audio, initially captured to help with transcription, to the final printed book so we'll have the chance to hear the exuberance, love, frustration, and character in his voice instead of attempting to infer it for ourselves.

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The result is the Modern Memoir, a book that captured the sounds and stories of grandpa's life before they were lost to time.