Biographicality

I spent the last blog talking about some various other avenues you could pursue besides novel-writing, but I neglected one avenue that didn’t occur to me until today when I had the chance to sit down with my 88-year-old grandfather and have a nice long talk. How many times have you wished you could know a little bit more about your ancestors? When you hear those stories about pioneers crossing the plains or the first settlers of the “New World,” don’t you wonder for a moment what a day in their lives must have been like? Well, there’s nothing you can do about those long-gone relatives. Perhaps their stories have been lost forever. But there is something you can do today—write the biography of your older relatives. Not only will it be a keepsake of incalculable value to you, but just think of your posterity. What could these stories mean to them? In the half hour talk I had with my grandfather, he related to me at least half a dozen stories of a time I can barely fathom. To give you an idea of what sorts of stories and lessons we can glean from the older generation, read the following summary of a story which my grandpa related to me:

Bill Hulet was drafted into the army at the age of 21. He was called to begin his training exactly three weeks after he married Betty Danks (my grandmother.) In his training, his superiors discovered his knack for learning languages and he was assigned to become an interrogator of German POWs. He landed in Europe a month after D-Day and his battalion followed behind the first wave of troops that swept through Germany. One night, a German soldier was brought before him who couldn’t have been more than 19-years-old. Bill began questioning him and soon discovered that the young man was a Mormon—Bill was a Mormon as well. And suddenly there, in the midst of all the commotion of the POW camp, those two soldiers of opposing sides found a moment of peace. Bill comforted the young German, counseled him to follow orders, and promised that after the war he would be allowed to return home. Bill never saw that German soldier again, but he had the feeling that there was a German mother somewhere who had been praying that her son would not lose his faith during his time at war. That night, her prayer was answered.