Your parents’ love story usually has details their children have never heard: the first date that almost did not happen, the family that disapproved, the courage to start over. These are stories told halfway at anniversaries — and they deserve a full record before the main characters are no longer around to tell them.
How they met
Start at the beginning, asking for the scene, not the summary:
- Where and how did you meet? Describe that day as if it were today.
- What was your first impression of each other?
- Was there an obstacle at the start — distance, family, shyness?
Dating and the proposal
- What was a date like for you back then?
- How did the proposal happen? Who took the first step?
- What was the wedding day like? What went right and what went off the rails?
Life together, with its ups and downs
A good love story is not only romance — it is what you build:
- What was the hardest stretch you got through together?
- What have you learned from each other over the years?
- If you could give a young couple one piece of advice, what would it be?
Questions like these pair well with our guide on how to interview your father, which also covers other stages of their lives, and with the questions for a long-time couple, designed for when both agree to be interviewed together.
Turn it into a gift
Recording this story is a tribute in itself. Record the answers as audio, ideally with both of them together — one person’s memory fills in the other’s.
Later, these memories can become a golden anniversary gift or a book for your parents — their story, kept with the care it deserves.
Their story is not a test of the marriage
Listen to how each person remembers, without using the account to predict the relationship’s future. A couple may have started life together in Canada, lived in several communities or built their family in more than one language. Ask for concrete scenes and allow different versions. Before recording or preparing a gift, confirm that both consent and what they would rather keep private.
Further reading: Oral History Association — participants.