# 16 questions to ask your grandmother about the war

These questions start with the ordinary and let the person choose how far to go. Never open with the worst day. Bring one photo each visit. A photograph she has not seen in years will produce more than any question on this list.

1. Where were you when the big news of your lifetime came? What did people around you do?
   History is only worth a page if it touched this person. Ask what it did to them.
2. Did anyone in your family serve? What did they say about it, and what did they never say?
3. What was rationed, scarce, or impossible to get, and how did people manage?
4. What did you think of the war at the time, and has that changed?
5. What did you eat when there was no money?
6. What was the first morning like? Where did you sleep, what did you eat, who shouted?
   The ordinary first. The big stories live next door to it.
7. Who did you serve with that you still think about? What were they like?
8. What did you write home, and what did you leave out?
9. What did people at home know, and what did they get wrong about it?
10. What did you do the day it ended?
11. What did your mother or father tell you about their war, and what did they never say?
12. What was still rationed, broken or unrebuilt in your town when you were growing up?
13. Was there a time you were truly afraid? (tender: ask once, late, in person)
14. Is there a story from that time you have never told, that you would be willing to tell once? Or would you rather leave it? (tender: ask once, late, in person)
15. What did coming home feel like, and how long did it take to actually come home? (tender: ask once, late, in person)
16. Was anyone you knew sent to a war in the 1960s? What did their mother do while they were away? (tender: ask once, late, in person)

## How to use these questions

Ask by voice, not by form. Record it. One or two questions a visit is enough; the follow-up ("who else was there?", "what did she say?", "what happened the day after?") matters more than the next question on the list. Tender questions are marked; ask them once, late, and with "or would you rather leave that?" in the question itself.

## About Tellforth

Tellforth asks questions like these by voice, remembers every answer, asks the next question a good listener would, and writes a finished book from what was said: a memoir in the person's own words, or a novel built on the true story. You own every recording. https://tellforth.com