Reminiscing
20 questions to ask a grandparent
When you want to hear your grandparent’s memories, the right question helps you get started. We picked 20 questions from Muistola’s question bank, with six tips on reminiscing together to begin with.
Before you ask
Tips for reminiscing together
Ask about everyday life
Ordinary things are a good place to start: where the family ate, who sat where, how the washing was done before washing machines.
Ask about their youth
Many people remember best what happened between the ages of about 10 and 30.
Bring out an old photo
A photo or object of their own brings back memories more strongly than anything else.
Give it time
Silence doesn’t mean the topic is dull. Often they are thinking.
Listen and ask more
Real interest encourages them to tell more. Sometimes it’s enough to say: “You once told me…”
Not everything has to be remembered
Some memories are heavy. If a topic doesn’t feel right, choose another question.
Further reading (in Finnish): Taina Stenberg, Muistelu vuorovaikutusmenetelmänä (Reminiscence as a way of interacting, Ikäinstituutti 2015, PDF).
The questions
20 questions
Choose one question at a time and let them tell it at their own pace.
Childhood
- Where did you grow up, and what was your home like?
- What was the kitchen like in your childhood home?
- What did you love playing most as a child?
- What do you remember about Christmas when you were a child?
School and youth
- What was your journey to school like when you were a child?
- Which teacher do you remember most clearly, and what were they like?
- What was your best friend like when you were young?
- What do you remember about going dancing or other evenings out when you were young?
Love and family
- How did you meet someone you came to love?
- What do you remember about your grandparents?
- Which sayings, recipes or customs have been passed down in your family?
- If you became a mother or father, how did those first days feel?
Work and everyday life
- How did you earn your first money of your own?
- What was your first proper job like?
- What was shopping like before self-service shops came along?
- What do you remember about electricity, a telephone or your first radio coming into your home?
Thoughts on life
- What is the best advice you have ever been given?
- What do you see differently now than when you were young?
- What would you like to say to yourself at twenty?
- What makes you laugh?
Muistola asks for you
With Muistola, your grandparent gets three questions every week and answers by speaking. The family listens to and reads the memories in the app, and the first month is free.