Page 40 November 2 014 JCL.com/practices We’re here for you Right around the corner, you’ll find three primary care practices, giving you easy access to family medicine physicians and services. Whether you need to be seen right away for a cold or flu, or you want to schedule your regular checkup, we’re nearby and ready to help. Call today. shc.org/primarycare Affiliate of Scottsdale Lincoln Health Network Arcadia Family Clinic 4131 N. 24th Street, Suite B102 602-955-6632 Primary Care Arcadia 100 4840 E. Indian School Road, Suite 100 480-882-7360 Primary Care Arcadia 101 4840 E. Indian School Road, Suite 101 480-882-7350 • Accepting new patients • Same day appointments • Most insurance plans accepted • Extended office hours Need a Doctor? By Jean Hodgson This is the time of year when we start thinking about gift giving and asking ourselves, “What would be the perfect present for my family members?” Here’s an idea where you don’t have to be concerned about size, color or cost. This gift is truly “one of a kind” and can only be bestowed by you. What have you done to pass on the history and heritage of your family and your own unique memories to the next generations? Preparing that information in a permanent and meaningful way could be one of the most thoughtful and treasured gifts they will ever receive. I received this when my uncle died and his widow called to tell me that his boxes of family photos were mine because there was no one else on whom to pass the photos. My mother’s siblings had no children and I am an only child, so I am the last of this generation of the Hartfelder family. I realized that there would be no one for my children to ask about this part of their heritage if I didn’t put the Jean puts together photo albums and a memory box to pass on some of her heritage to her daughter. Continued on page 41

Page 41 November 2 0 14 uncle died me that his ine because hom to pass lings had no ild, so I am he Hartfelder e would be sk about this dn’t put the 480.300.4700 3200 E. Glenrosa Ave MorningStarSeniorLiving.com Must take financial possession by Dec 31 Community Fee Waived 480.300.4700 One Year Wiser with a brighter light to live by On your birthday—and every day Celebrate the timeless with us Receive your Birth Month RENT-FREE $ 2500 information into writing. Unfortunately, it is also a project that can seem overwhelming and frustrating because we often don’t know where to start. Therefore, it gets relegated to the “Things I Really Should Do Someday” list where it sits and nags at our conscience. How many of us have albums or boxes of old photos with no identification of the people in the pictures, let alone a labeling of the time or place? My uncle’s death was a huge motivator. It led to a truly satisfying experience of remembering, searching for details and sharing the outcome with my children. Each family situation is different, so there is no one-size-fits-all model for approaching this project or what the finished product should look like. The key is making it meaningful for your family – and getting started! For me the way to begin was to create a large envelope for each ancestor with labeled photos and memorabilia inside and on the outside I recorded my memories of my relationship with that person. Of course I included the traditional family tree diagram, but my grandparents emigrated from Romania and there was no history of earlier generations. Ancestry. com provided the treasure of a copy of the manifest and a photo of the ship on which they arrived in America in 1905. This memory box is a work in progress and I will revisit it with more details that I missed in the initial organization. It also inspired me to create the same kind of remembrance about my father’s family and for my husband to connect with distant family members and even meet them to share information. Now, how do you pass on the details and insights about your own life? We discovered excellent tools in record books with titles like A History of our Family and A Grandparent’s Book: Answers to a Grandchild’s Questions. Besides providing an organized way to supply factual details, they include creative prompts for sharing your interests and insights about which you might not otherwise think to write. If you’d prefer not to write, how about an audio or video recording of you relaying your history? Maybe a family member would be interested in interviewing you and preserving the memories you share with them. In a recent Pickles comic strip the grandfather tells his grandson, “There’s an old African proverb... When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.” The young boy asks, “Yeah, but we’ll still have Google and Wikipedia, right?” We chuckle at his response, but appreciate the wisdom of his grandfather in valuing the personal history of each generation. Now What Continued from page 40 d on page 41