Stories from Children

Here is a story written by an 11 year old young lady. I’m personally very impressed with how well done it is. A wonderful example of storytelling by young children – don’t you think it’s worth exploring? I happen to have some interview questions just for asking children to tell their stories. 


This little girl’s great grandpa is a client and good friend of mine. Enjoy her story. Incidentally, this is word for word and punctuation for punctuation from her own writing. If mom and dad, or great grandpa and great grandma are new clients for planning, this child’s story goes a long way to giving me insight into grandpa and, just as importantly, into the little storyteller.

My Great Grandpa

 Today I’m going to be telling you about someone that is a very important person in my life. His name is Ray Parker and he is my great grandpa. He was born on May 9, 1927 in Minco, Oklahoma. When he was little his mom dropped him and his older brother off at the orphanage and she never came back. This is something that he still remembers today and will for the rest of his life.


My grandpa has many memories from the orphanage. First, he broke his arm and the owners of the orphanage didn’t set it right. Then one kid got lice so they shaved every ones head and, it didn’t matter if you were a girl or a boy. When he was older, a woman wanted to adopt him so that he could work on her farm. He wouldn’t let her adopt him because he wanted to keep his name. Then when he was of age he joined the Coast Guard.


A Very happy time in my grandpa’s life is when he got married to my great grandma, Kathryn Parker, an older Norwegian woman from a wealthy family from Iowa. They had two children Alan and Lynn. A very sad time in his life was out living his son. Alan had three children and three grand children and now my great grandpa can enjoy spending time with all of them. His daughter Lynn is my grandma.


His job at Stern’s Oil Company took him all over the world and he lived all the way from Alaska to Israel. His pictures have enabled me to learn the ways of life and cultures of many countries. After traveling for so many years they are now happy to be retired and living in Grand Junction, Colorado. My grandpa has led an exciting life and I hope someday that I will too.