A very special project with some very special people

I hadn’t been home for over 5 years. COVID and travel expenses were the top culprits, and an over-commitment to my job was another. But when my friend Jim Hobart, an amazing photographer and videographer, caught wind that I was planning to make my way home this August, he kind of invited himself along.

Jim has a special project that he’s called the Legacy Life Project, where he interviews elders in people’s families and records their stories. He then edits them into mini-family documentaries that they can hold on to and cherish as time goes on. And he really wanted to do one on my father.

My dad, who is 81 years old this year. Speaks in stories. He loves stories and he loves being the one to share them with people. It’s just something he’s always done, in part to probably save his ass, and in another because it gives him joy. But he’s been losing some of them as time goes on, so I’ve felt this pang that I needed to do something quick to save them.

So, here we are, in Northern Ontario, about to sit down with my dad and try to capture a flicker of what makes him him. It’s like catching fireflies, really. Which he used to help me do in the yard on sweaty summer nights.