I interviewed my dad a couple of days ago. He's getting older, and I don't want us to lose his life experiences. Actually, from the interview, I discovered he doesn't want them to be lost either. He wants to be remembered.
As I took the time to write his responses down, I realized that a lot of the stories were ones that I've heard before. I also was not surprised by some of his flippant answers to the more personal questions.
During the interview, the questions I had prepared were just guidelines, and I did ad-lib some where I thought there was more story lurking. As a result, I discovered that my dad's first wife cheated on him with his friend. I had no idea. My half-sister, a couple of years ago, told me that she still harbored ill-feelings towards my dad for leaving her to grow up with her mom. She said that her mom had a lot of issues and was not fit to raise a child. From that, I knew that there was probably some good reason my dad got divorced, but I didn't know cheating was it.
I also learned that when my dad first met my mom, he knew "without a doubt" she was the one he would marry. Oh, and they met in a bar.
I have to clean up my typing of his answers still, but I'm going to interview my mom and then send their stories to my siblings. I think that'll be a fun surprise for them to have.
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