Questions to ask
Ten life story questions to ask your parents and grandparents
They have a story you have never heard. These ten questions follow a life from the first memory to the words that matter most. Pick one, ask it this week, and listen.
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What is the very first thing you can remember?
A first memory is a doorway. One small picture, and a whole childhood starts to come back.
What were your parents like? Describe each of them in a few words.
You get to meet the people who raised them, through the eyes of the child they once were.
What did the house you grew up in look, sound and smell like?
The creak on the stairs, the kitchen on a Sunday: details that put you right there beside them.
What was your first date like?
Every family begins with two nervous people. It is the story they love to tell, and now you get to keep it.
What was your first job, and how much did it pay?
An easy one that always brings a laugh, and shows you who they were when they were just starting out.
How do you get through the hard days?
Their answer becomes something steady to keep close, in their own words.
When did I make you proudest?
You hear, in their words, exactly what they saw in you.
What is the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you?
Wisdom that was handed down once already, now handed on to you.
Which family story do you want me to pass on to my own children?
They choose the story that carries on, and you become the one who keeps it.
What would you like to say to me that you've never said out loud?
This is the page families read again and again. Give it room, and the words arrive.
Ten is where it starts
The journal holds the rest of the story
Each Tell Me Your Story journal walks through a whole life, one gentle question at a time, with room to write every answer in their own hand. Choose who you are asking.
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The Porch Stories Family Bundle
All four journals: Grandpa, Grandma, Mom and Dad. 100 guided questions inside each.
$24.99
Printable PDF. Secure checkout right here on this page (card or PayPal). The files are ready right after purchase, and your receipt email keeps a download link for later.
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The 25 questions you’ll wish you had asked
For your Mom, Dad, Grandma or Grandpa: the stories families most often lose, on one page to print or keep on your phone. Free when you join the porch list.