Personal Narrative: My Grandfather: Paul Flames

On the agreed date and time, I reached the agreed meeting place which was a coffee shop in Vancouver. I had previously sent a photo of myself with my interview request thus making it easy for him to find me. We had a brief introduction where I explained to him how I was given his contact information and why I chose him to interview. He asked me questions about my study and future plans. After this, I asked him questions about his profession and communication skills usages at his work

The person I interviewed is Anita Alfaro. I am related to this person because she is my mother. Anita was born March 2,1974. She was born in the Wood County Hospital which is located in Bowling Green Ohio. Anita’s parents are Linda and Harvey Taft. She has three other siblings. She has an older brother Dean Taft and two younger brothers, Jerry Taft and Jeffery (Jeff) Taft. Anita had lived in North Baltimore, Jerry City, and she is currently living in Rudolph. She had attended North Baltimore and Elmwood school district. Anita has blue eyes and she has short brown/blond hair.

After learning of this opportunity to interview an elderly adult, I already had a candidate in mind. S.F. is the grandfather of my boyfriend and this was the perfect opportunity to learn more about his family roots. It made for an easier interview because I was able establish more intimate connections by interviewing the grandfather of someone so close to me. S.F. is an 80 year old Caucasian male living with his wife of 59 years in Mineral Wells, Texas. Born in Brazos, Texas, he is the middle

The person I interviewed was my mom Peggy Pacheco, She was born on October 27, 1972 at St. Charles Hospital. Her Parents are Sharon Blevins (mom), and Ronald Blevins (dad), Her siblings are Julie (sister) and Bob (brother). She’s only lived in two places, Pemberville, Ohio and Bowling Green, Ohio. My mom had attended Eastwood school when she was younger. She has medium length hair, brown hair, she wears glasses, has lots of freckles and brown eyes.

For the oral history project, I interviewed my grandmother. Her full name is Imelda Laborce, while she is known as “Meldy” to most family members. She was born in a small town called Calapacuan in the Zambales region of the Philippines. She was born in 1955 and is 61 years old. Like me, she was born in the Philippines but eventually moved to America sometime in her life. I believed she was a good candidate because I knew she was one of the earliest members of my family to travel to America. Hence, she must have good stories and have a rich background. I also never really knew anything about her past, so I just thought it would be interesting in general to learn about it. She currently lives in Union, New Jersey and works in a hospital as a nurse.

The person I interviewed was Charles Lee Codding. He is my father. He were born in October twenty fourth, nineteen sixty six at Wood County Hospital. His dad's name is exactly the same as his and his mom's name is Alta Maree Codding. Her maiden name is Baker. Some of his siblings names are Ann Olson, Mark Olson, Tom Olson, Dan Olson, and Nancy Schmit. He has three brothers and sisters named Marsha Cuckler, David Codding, and Janet Hammersmith. He has lived in Bowling Green, Ohio and Ann Arbor, Michigan. They have been in Bowling Green most of their life so they went to Bowling Green schools. He went to Conneaut, Bowling Green Middle School, Bowling Green High School, and Bowling Green State University. He is tall, blonde hair, and green eyes.

My sixty-year old grandmother, Helaine Bondar, conveniently lives in Baltimore, MD. This made the interview quite convenient, and we were able to sit down face-to-face on her dining room table chairs with a plate of cookies for the interview. "Bubby" as I call her, was born in New York City and lived there her entire youth. She only had one sister, Suzette, who still lives in New York City (my grandmother recalls at this time that my great-grandmother was very fond of French names.) When asked about her grandparents she reminisced on her days with "nanny" and "poppy," her maternal grandparents who practically raised her. She spoke about their personalities. Nanny was the bulldozer go-getter of the family, my grandmother said her favorite phrase was "my way or the highway." Poppy was more calm, and they balanced each other out perfectly. Bubby 's paternal grandparents were Anna and Sol Gross, and despite their close proximity-- they also lived in the Bronx -- Bubby just wasn’t as close with them.

I interviewed Durward “Durk” Lynch he is in my field of interest where I want to work as one day. He is a Nurse Practitioner at the Vanden Bosh Clinic and at the College Clinic. He gave information on his background and what drove him to be a Nurse Practitioner (NP). He really has had a lot of experience, as I will explain to you what he has shared.

The name of the interviewee is Matt Gunnell. He is a manager at the Jefferson City Apothecary. He has been instrumental to manufacturing medicine a playing a vital role in keeping the people of the Jefferson City community healthy and strong. I decided to choose Matt because he is a laid back and amazing individual who is very positive about life and encourage others to thrive and find their talent to make the world a better place. He also has a strong passion for his job and his role in ensuring the wellness of our citizens in this community. Also, I picked the Apothecary because of the vital role they to ensure our society have access to the medicine they need to stay healthy. It is one of the very few pharmaceutical businesses in town. It also offer pocket friendly prescriptions for some citizens that had to pay out of pocket.

The first person I interviewed was Celeste Lashmett. Celeste was my high school track coach and had recently became a new parent in the last two years. AJ is two years and four months old right now. Celeste is currently living in Winchester Illinois with her husband Tim. Tim and Celeste have been married for the last five years. With AJ only being a little over two years old I would still consider them to be new parents. Tim works at Lincoln Land FS in Winchester and Celeste is the high school guidance counselor and also the high school track coach. The interview was done at the high school in Celeste’s office and Tim was not present.

The person I interviewed is Heather Wright. Heather is my mother I have lived with her my whole entire life.Heather wright is my mom and she taught a lot of things since I was born. Heather was born in the wood county hospital. She was born on April 21st 1982. Her parents names were are Regina for her mother and Ronnie for her father. She had Two sisters and one brother, there names were Jessica,Tasha, and Dustin Wright. At first my mom lived in McComb and went to McComb elementary school. North Baltimore and went to school at North Baltimore middle-high school. My mother has blue eyes, she's 5”6” and long strawberry blond hair.

1. Question: Share some of the background of your interviewee (or couple). What was this person’s/couple’s story?

“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”

    The person I interviewed was Mrs. L. I know her because she is my mother’s mother. The interview took place at my house and the interview lasted about 2 hours and 20 minutes. I chose to interview Mrs. L because she seems to have done everything right and in the right order to lead to a successful life. I thought it would be interesting to go into depth and find out how she really did it and find out the hardships that came with making a successful family and life. (word count: 90)

When we were together we were invincible, us against the world. I’d look up to him, not only because he was 6’4, but because he was my grandpa. I have clear memories of him picking me up from school, playing old school reggae music during our adventurous car rides. We’d always sing along to our favorites, sometimes turn the music up so loud the people in the cars next to us could hear it. When I would visit his apartment, the familiar smell of drywall and pennies would fill the air. It was my hideaway, my home away from home. My grandpa collected pennies in water jugs. He would say that one day they’d be worth more than just pennies. I loved it there, not only because he had a freezer filled with many flavors of ice cream to which he would often say to me “you can have all you can eat” but because it was our time to bond. For five years it was my mom, my dad, and my grandpa helping me to grow. Those are my favorite people, my role models. Being around my grandpa brought me such comfort and joy.