Just recently I had dinner with the Riley’s.  We were getting together to record their personal history.  It’s the gift I gave them for their fiftieth anniversary.  I want to tell (but more importantly I want to know) their “story”.  I don’t want to record the facts of their life, everyone knows that, I want to record their “story”. The behind the scenes, I never knew, aren’t they amazing story.

Although I aspire to make this part of my Ordinary Legacy work, I wouldn’t endeavor to gift something like this to people I know causually, we are dear friends and we have had dinner many times before.  Our dinners usually include wine, laughter, wit and inuendo, and oh yes a fabulous meal.  Whether Jan cooks or I do the meal becomes almost secondary to the excuse of sitting around telling stories. 

Our dinners run about four hours long but feel as if they are over in minutes.  There is rarely a lull in the conversation, there is always something new to talk about. There is eye rolling and cajoling and friendly bickering and heart felt explanations of events both past and present.  We truly enjoy each other’s company.

It’s a bit difficult to say goodbye always promising to get together sooner next time and off we go to our very different lives.  I won’t let on what I’ve discovered about my friends in gathering their personal history and formulating their story it’s not my place.  That will be up to them, suffice to say, they are very interesting people with a wonderful story indeed.