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February 20, 2004
Immortalizing your memories
Technology has brought unique ways to share your life with generations.
KYLE BERGER REPORTER
It has always been said that whenever we can, we should take the
time to stop and smell the flowers. Sam Reynolds wants people to
do more than that. She thinks that at some point we should stop
to recall and document all the flowers we've sniffed – the
entire garden. That's the basis behind her company Echo Memoirs:
Share your story, turn it into a book and pass it on for generations
to come.
Reynolds spends her days meeting with families who have made the
decision to immortalize their memories in print. Whether it's about
an elderly married couple, wedding day bliss or six- and eight-year-old
brothers sharing their views of the world, Reynolds said that life
is too precious to just forget.
"I think that if you know where you've come from, or if in
your life you take some time to reflect on how you've gotten to
where you are, you're better for it," she said from her Vancouver
studio. "At the pace that we all live, we don't take enough
time to sit down and reflect or ask others questions."
One of the more recent projects Echo Memoirs produced was a 150-page
book about Henry and Lily Cynamon – Holocaust survivors who
now live in Edmonton. Their daughter, Helena Cynamon, and her siblings
were concerned that the stories their parents carried with them
might soon be forgotten, so they commissioned the book for their
parents' 50th wedding anniversary.
"I just wanted to make sure that my parents' experiences, which
were historically unique and intense, would be captured," she
told the Bulletin. "Both on the global scale of what
happened to many and on a personal level of what happened to them."
The hard-copy book is filled with historical family pictures, quotes
from friends and story after story of the Cynamons' youth growing
up in Europe, their lives after the war and the family they raised
in Canada.
"Ever since I was 16, I had asked my dad to write things down
and he never did, so this was a way to get it before their memories
faded," Cynamon said. "Everybody in the family got a book
so that we could celebrate their lives together.
"I think it's an incredible emotional investment," she
continued. "It validates who they are and who we are and I
recommend it to everyone."
Reynolds, who said that she boasts a 100 per cent cry rate, believes
very strongly in the responsibility she has in telling these important
stories.
"The stories are so beautiful that it would be a shame to produce
them in a non-beautiful format," she said. "It pays for
itself a million times over with everyone who picks the book up
and enjoys it. I always encourage people to keep them on their coffee
table. Don't let the book make its way up to the attic and don't
shelve it."
The books range in price starting at $1,500. Depending on the topic
of the book, the process can involve hours of interview time, an
extensive tour of the family home, a look through old and new pictures
or a chat with various other friends and family. It can take several
months to complete a book and whoever commissions the project is
always the ultimate editor-in-chief.
Although her office is based in Vancouver, Reynolds has interviewers
in Victoria, Kelowna, Calgary, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto,
Seattle, New York and San Francisco. Echo Memoirs can be seen online
at www.echomemoirs.com.
Remembered by video
Cory Bretz, the marketing communications director of the Jewish
Federation of Greater Vancouver, has his own business that also
focuses on documenting the lives of the community's older generation.
His work, however, comes in the form of a video, rather than a book.
Heirloom Films, said Bretz, helps people pass on and transmit to
the future, their essence, personalities, stories, wisdom, blessings
or just personal messages for those they care about. He stressed
that his form of digital immortality focuses only on seniors.
"A lot of them grew up before television was around and they
have a view of the world that was not shaped by advertisers or Hollywood
writers working out their emotional issues through sitcoms,"
he said. "They were shaped with a whole different set of values
of what it was about to be a human being in the world. Those people
have something important to pass on."
Bretz said that a completed Heirloom Film is reminiscent of an episode
from the popular Arts and Entertainment series Biography.
"My greatest challenge is being able to take [an interviewee]
into a place where they feel safe enough to reveal who they really
are," he said. "The average 80-year-old person has a life
that's like a tapestry that's been painted on the side of a building.
The depth and the terrain of a person's life is like sifting through
a hay stack and asking them if they want to pass this on to the
future or not."
With a two- to four-month average production time, an Heirloom Film
can cost between $5,000 and $25,000 depending on what the family
wants. More information can be found online at www.heirloomfilms.ca.
Kyle Berger is a freelance journalist and graphic designer
living in Richmond.
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