YES Members Stories

YES members benefit greatly from our projects. Here are some of their stories:

Grandmother and Grandson:

Elsie Davies Aged 87

Doing YES and the Life Diary with Tom has shown me how much he really cares. As time has passed we’ve become closer, in the last two to three years I’ve been housebound yet we still see each other as often as possible. Tom will help me in any way he can. We have discussions on every subject; world affairs, politics, music, and TV. I often wonder at his interest in the past lives of me and my relatives, but it gives me great pleasure to doing YES and the Life Diary with him.

I hear stories of many Grandparents being neglected and forgotten, and some (but not all) grandchildren dreading visiting them or having them over. With my family it is the opposite, they worry about me all the time and they all make such a fuss of me when I visit. Our relationship is one of the best there is, at 87 I’m really blessed- having teenage grandchildren who I can talk to, telling me their hopes as I tell them mine.

Tom Browning Aged 15

I thought the YES booklets and the use of the Life Diary was a great idea, it bridges the gap between generations and helps us to understand our grandparents and hopefully helps them understand us. The history of our grandparents is both enthralling and miles better than anything one could read in a boring book. Oral history gives a personal edge to all the brilliant stories. I have been doing it now for ages and I have learned so much, I like to think that through use of many questions/answers we have become closer, as have all my family in fact, as when we do it my mum and my sisters love to join in and engage with us. For me YES has captured the magic of a generation which may be forgotten, through their passion they can vividly recall their past history.  It is never a chore to do it, in fact it is something we both enjoy doing. I too know of many people who loathe having to see their grandparents, and dislike elderly people in general, and vice versa. People are influenced by the stereotype disgruntled yobbish teenager, or the boring, bitter  older generation. Neither of which is true of course, but people need to take the time to realise this, and break their preconceptions, YES is  a way of doing this and young and old everywhere could benefit from it.

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