First, your photos are fabulous, Agnes! I’ve always wanted to visit Bali ♥

Second, most stories never get told. Some people don’t want their privacy shared or invaded, some think their tales are unimportant and uninteresting, some are too busy living to worry about talking/writing about their lives.

My experience is that we miss the stories when those who could tell them are gone. Captain Argentina and his mother were very close and spoke and visited often. Yet, when she passed four years ago tomorrow, my husband realized there were so many stories she never told, so many he didn’t ask her to tell.

The brother closest to my husband in age passed one month before their mother. How often Ben says that he is the only person alive that remembers this or that story because his brother and/or his mother are gone. He alone now holds some of their stories but not all. If he doesn’t share those memories, the stories will be lost forever when he’s gone.

The listeners have to take the initiative and ask for the stories, show an interest, urge the telling of tales. Otherwise, they disappear when the person is gone.