Immortality - how can a person's story live on after death.

[i-need-a-martini]

My dad is in his late 70's and is contemplating the end. He thinks because he has lived an average life and did nothing exciting that no-one will remember him a decade after death.

Anyway, he wants his name to 'live on' somewhere so his story lives on somewhere.

This week he is going to register for the Welcome Wall at the National Maritime Museum but he is disappointed that the wall only has his name and no other details other than 100 words he can add to a data base.

Can anyone think of anything else he could do? 

Or do you have things you remember your grandparents/ancestors by?

Or maybe you have already thought about what legacy you will leave your kids/grandkids etc?

All ideas welcome. Note he doesn't have any money to leave and English is his second language.

[kengillard]

perhaps he should write his OWN story and have it printed?

[not_an_eloi]

http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/belongings-home/

the migration heritage centre at the powerhouse museum's got a book called 'belongings' that may interest your father.   might get the ol' tongue workin' if he sees things that 'e recalls about his life in his earlier years in australia, might help him to remember things that's he's forgotten all about.   could be available in the local library, reckon i'd start there.

they've got exhibitions there, about post-war italian migrants you could take your father to, phone 'em to find out about those.    know some sons of italian migrants, they tell me that their fathers' lives were wholly centred around their families, their homes, their jobs, a vege. garden, home-made grog, that was enough.  sons thought their fathers were fairly ordinary, but they recognised the important part that played in givin' them a good home, they knew how hard they'd to work, to get it for them.  

fairly sure that you can apply to get a grant to help you do your research through them.  if i find the information, i'll post it 'ere

seem to remember a place in nsw called 'new italy' from a trip, got a museum of some kind. 
take a look around the website, may be somethin' that will help you, there:    http://newitaly.com.au/?page_id=8

time capsule's not a bad idea, your father can pack the thing

[izabsmiling]

He was a tailor. Started an apprentiship  at 9 in Italy and when he arrived in Australia he worked in factories. He left Italy in the mid 60's to escape army conscription as he still had horrible boyhood memories of the war.

To your Father this sounds ordinary because he lived it...it isn't ordinary though is it ?

There has been some great suggestions.

Anything that goes into a newspaper can be found later on .

Maybe you could write a special birthday tribute and put it in the paper ?

It may not be nice to say...but an detailed obit would be able to be found later.

Maybe write a letter to an editor about your dad and his life and those in it ? If that was published that would be able to be read by anyone later on ?

[izabsmiling]

please tell your Father that just from those details you mentioned...his life was not ordinary then and most certainly isn't when people of today hear about it...it no doubt will be even more extraordinary in years to come .

[*elizabeths-mum*]

Is there such a thing as an ordinary person? Every baby born is a miracle to someone and every ancestor traced is of endless interest to the descendent looking for them.

My sister is a member of ancestry.com and the information shared there is amazing. We have photos of my grandfather as a baby in 1910 with his parents and sister thanks to another connected member. I'm not sure about publishing stories although I'm sure someone here will know, but maybe somewhere like that is what he needs, public but with a targeted audience. 

I've been doing research on social conditions in the UK following WW2 and find people's blogs interesting as well. Blogs can be public or private so he could have as big an audience as he wants (you might have to put the work in and 'ordinary' lives are fascinating when they record a different era. 🙂

[jimmy*part4]

Tweet from beyond the grave....and other things..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2281603/When-heart-stops-beating-youll-tweeting-The-a...

[soul_art]

What about having an artist paint his portrait with the background being a collage of the important things in his life.  Marriage, children but also things like favourite poems,books music places he loves etc.  Once he starts looking for things like that, things he's done, places he been, people he's met, he may see that his life has been full of extra ordinary things not a life of a "failer".