Stories Can Keep Your Family Boat Afloat

As an introduction to the power of family stories, let me share one I included in memories of my mom on Family Search in 2016:

Baby’s Boat’s Lullaby

I remember mom, Marjorie Lyon Hafen, singing this song to us as a lullaby. I couldn’t remember all the words, but I tried to sing it to my children as well as I could. My daughter, Heidi, in turn, has sung it to her children as best as she could remember it.

Last week when we were tending Heidi’s children, we heard her oldest daughter, Kylee, singing this song to her baby sister, Sophie, to help her fall asleep. It was such a sweet memory of mom and her love of music and babies.

Today, we found a small spiral notebook in a box of mom’s belongings. It was a collection of song lyrics, with index, in mom’s handwriting and included Baby’s Boat’s! I really felt her close to me and thanked her for giving us the gift of love and music.

I wanted to share this for any other family members who remember this song and others that mom gave us.

That simple story is so much more than words. It elicits memories of Mom’s voice singing it as she rocked me and my younger siblings. I believe it is part of the reason I find it unthinkable that anyone could raise babies and children without lullabies and some sort of rocking chair. We have recently been tending our newest grandson and had to dust off an old rocking chair, which has a story of its own, to soothe and cuddle him. Here is a YouTube rendition of Baby’s Boat’s. Does it bring any memories or stories to the surface for you?

Here are samples from the resources for this month’s tenet: We greatly value the contributing role of families, which touch on the power of family stories. We are not alone in this world, rather, we are like links in a vast intergenerational chain of family members and relatives that span across time. We embrace this fact and seek to preserve and renew our relationships with family members past, present, and future…

This is more than a nicety but is a proven assistance to the health and well-being of our children. A study by Dr. Duke at Emory University showed that children who knew the stories of their ancestors were much more emotionally resilient than those who did not.

As many of my previous articles attest, I am a huge fan of family history, especially family stories. This one about green oranges on your family tree is just one example. Our own family cherishes the mostly-funny family stories that are part of our history. A few years ago, my daughter Heather collected some of our most famous anecdotes and gifted them to us. Writing this article has nudged me to get that book out and add more family tales. I may transfer those stories and add more using the FamilySearch free online activity that allows you to either type or use a voice recording to preserve them easily and permanently. 

Perhaps your family story may not be the fairy tale you hoped for. However, there are surely stories of previous generations and current relatives and friends that can inspire you and your descendents to have hope of sailing toward dreams fulfilled. If you are fortunate enough to have stories of love, service, and inspiration, please share them with others in person and on social media using #FamilyCapital. 

Your family stories may be critical, and preserving them may be a life preserver to keep your family boat and its passengers afloat on the sometimes turbulent sea of life. 

Lead Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash