Racing the clock

I'll always thank my lucky stars that I captured my paternal grandmother and her wonderful stories on video. I wish I'd been able to do it with my other grandparents as well. I really feel a keen sense of loss when I think about all the family stories I'll never hear and especially about the fact that the chance to capture the images and voices of my other grandparents is lost to me forever.

Through the phone calls and e-mails I receive I'm finding that more and more people are realizing how important it is to preserve family legacies on video. That really cheers me. But still, thousands of family members die each day without leaving a video record of their lives behind. And when I hear family members say that a video biography is something they should "get around to" someday I really feel for them. That's because I know most of them will wait until it's too late - and I know the sense of loss they'll feel.

I hope I can inspire more people to "beat the clock" and preserve their stories, or the stories of their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. on video - before it's too late.