Recollections
Capture the stories of today, tomorrow and yesterday before memories fade and lives pass. Recollections’ process is simple, fast and affordable . . . and, as Kathy from Wisconsin says, “It was so much fun!”
Why is it important to preserve the stories of the past?
Preserving the past connects us all to times, places, and events that were meaningful and significant to our family, our friends, and our journey through life. Those connections keep us grounded, teach us lessons, grow our understanding and perception of our world, and inspire us to create a legacy of our own.
Recollections Products
#1 Life’s Special Occasions or Surprises - $150
During a one-hour conversation invite a family member to share the stories of a memorable event.
#2 Tell Us About It! - $150 per hour
Over a period of time - weeks, months, or years - you achieved your dream. How did you do it?
#3 My Life Story - $900
As the matriarch or patriarch of the family, it’s time for you to tell us who we are. Everything you did encouraged, inspired, and motivated us to be who we are. In a 3-hour interview Recollections will help you recall the best of times and the time or two that you stumbled and got up again. We have so much more to learn from you.
Preserve your history to be carried on through the generations. Share the stories of your life that you wished you knew from your past family members. We all carry these experiences and insights with us, we need to share them to experience their value. Learn about who your family was.
Recollections Testimonials
“As I’ve grown older, I’ve had a deep desire to leave a written testimonial for my children and grandchildren, but how to even begin seemed overwhelming to me. A cherished friend of mine introduced me to Al Betz who is an expert in such matters.
I met Al over the internet and he immediately won my confidence with his kind and gentlemanly demeanor. Within a few minutes, Al had given me the assurance that I could successfully write and leave my family my legacy. During the few times we met on the internet, Al always gave me the encouragement I needed and made me feel like he was an old friend just wishing to relax and listen to a snapshot of my life.
I am grateful to Al for making my desire come to fruition and I most highly recommend Al with his expertise to anyone who wishes to write a legacy story.”
~ Dorothy Brauer
“I feel grateful to have Al as my mentor. I had a vision of creating a Legacy Story project where I could offer families the gift of story. I had no idea how to begin or where to go. Al was kind enough to guide me through the experience of working with my very first client. His generosity, clear guidance, patience and his listening presence were some of the gifts he shared with me. Al has a natural gift of listening and gently engaging others with their most treasured stories. He made it look so easy and natural. I have learned so much from Al and I am deeply grateful.”
~ Kathy Ginn
Stories From Al
Annie
“There are several reasons why I enjoy capturing life stories. I am going to share with you a most poignant story that will explain why. I was called to hospice and asked to help a patient who wanted to talk about her nursing career. A room filled with more sadness I don’t believe I have ever entered. My new acquaintance, let’s call her Annie, was sitting in a chair next to her husband. I said hello. I looked Annie in the eyes. What looked back at me was a woman with sad eyes, a look of resignation to her fate, ready to use the last of her energy to satisfy the wishes of her family and tell her story and just get it over with.
I decided to make Annie my friend. She had to trust me and like me if she was ever going to really open up to me. So, I spent the next 30 minutes or so talking to Annie about our project, how much fun we were going to have, how much I looked forward to learning about her nursing career, talking about the people she helped. My goal was to make a new friend and to place her in a state of mind that would enable her to engage with me and have fun doing it.
We ended our first meeting with Annie agreeing to have me come back the next day when we would conduct the interview. She still hadn’t smiled but I knew that we had made progress when she agreed to see me again.
The next day was a clear sunny spring day. The grass and the flowers were looking good and brightening my spirit. I took that into the meeting room where Annie and her husband were waiting for me. Annie was different. She had put on makeup and fixed her hair . . . and she gave me an awfully sweet smile that told me she was ready. That was my signal to compliment her and move into our conversation.
We took it slowly. Annie talked about why she chose a career in nursing, she talked about her education. Then she talked about caring for patients being the blessing of her life. When we finished, I thanked Annie and I told her how much this was going to mean to her elementary school aged grandchildren as they grew older. She was leaving them a wonderful gift. Annie passed away one week later.”
A Love Story
“This is a love story. It begins about 15 years after the death of my father. I wanted to know more about my family, so I asked my mother and her surviving sisters and brother to allow me to interview them. Recall that my parents represented “The Greatest Generation,” so titled by Tom Brokaw the author of the book by the same name. The Greatest Generation was noted for their work ethic and their humility, among other attributes. So, I learned a lot about work on the family farm, about generosity, about patriotism, about faith. Life for my family was about clean living and hard work. They didn’t enjoy talking about themselves.
I was curious as to how they each met their spouses. Of course, I was most interested to hear what my mother had to say because I had never heard her, or my dad, talk about it. During World War II local churches kept in touch with soldiers by forming pen-pal groups. Each group member would be given the name of a soldier to correspond with. Theresa Bendekovits was given the name of Al Betz. They wrote to one another for about a year. I guess they hit it off because a year after Theresa and Al met I came along!
Unanswered questions stand in silence yearning to be answered. Answers change lives. My dad fought for his country and he also fought to meet the woman who would be the love of his life. I’m so happy that I asked the question.”
The Story of Al
“A number of years ago I was a member of the now defunct Association of Personal Historians. There were a few hundred members, each of whom was highly creative. They were teachers, journalists, writers, videographers, corporate leaders, domestic and international. Their projects ranged from life histories of individuals and corporate founders to histories of organizations. Prices began in the low thousands and went up into the tens of thousands of dollars for beautifully printed books and elaborate video productions.
I owned two busy businesses at the time. I didn’t have time to produce these types of projects. My love and my interest was to capture the stories, period. As time went on I realized that most families had talented family members who were able to incorporate imagery and rearrange text themselves. They didn’t need to pay me or anyone else to do that. That realization enabled me to form Recollections as a company using its capable interviewing and listening as well as very efficient transcription skills, along with today’s remote electronic communication platforms, to capture stories and deliver them in printed form electronically to customers. Using technology and a focus on the story brings the cost for a 3-hour interview plus preparation and production time into the hundreds of dollars as opposed to the thousands of dollars of other methods.
Why does a customer need my services? Why can’t he or she use one of the Artificial Intelligence instant transcription services? All a customer has to do is sit at a microphone and talk and a transcript would be produced. Perhaps speaking into a video camera or a voice recorder would be easier. First you would need to draft interview questions that enable your conversation to flow in whatever order you prefer. As you record your story you will need to retain in your mind the aspects of your stories that contain special meaning that you will want to embellish.
In a recent interview my customer told of a visit to Germany she took with her father shortly after World War II. They stayed with his brother’s family. My customer spent time with her cousin, the daughter of her uncle. As my customer told stories of conversations they had about the war I felt as though something important was not being shared. My job is to solicit feedback when I believe a story needs more information. As it turned out something important was not shared because it was not deemed by the girls to be anything special, or important. To later readers of this story, I knew that it would be important and interesting. My job is to use my life experience and my knowledge to ask appropriate questions in order to gain feedback and to assist my customer in developing his or her story.
It is so much easier to tell a story when you are telling it to another human being. Reactions to the storyteller’s narrative keep the moment alive and enable the storyteller’s memory to respond.”
~Al Betz, Recollections