Personal story - Hapa-palooza Team Member Nadine

When my son was born I asked my mother to write down her stories as a gift to him. 20 years later, she finished her autobiography and I finally met my mother. Not the woman who raised me but the woman who left a tropical island to live in snowy Canada and fall in love with a white man, in the 1960’s. I love her stories - about running to school in her bare feet then stopping to cram her dusty feet into leather oxfords before the teacher caught her - her first experience seeing snow - wartime in Trinidad - her crazy friends… stuff that happened before I was born. My father is in her stories too, woven throughout.

So… my take away? Hapas have great stories - we must write them down! And Facebook posts don’t count, folks. There is a voice to written word that is not captured in photos, videos or social media posts. Even certain handwriting can stop me in my tracks, like a memory of a smell. As a gift to your family and the generations that will follow, to those you will never meet but will have inherited your eyes, your love of marzipan … give your stories to them. But whatever you do, do not attempt to bring teenagers into the living room to tell them your stories - this is very dangerous - best to write it down.

Siupatie’s ebook link here soon