Words by Smiley Team
In the last weeks of her father’s life, Barbara Altounyan had a strong desire to record his life story. After all, her father, Roger Altounyan, had many remarkable memories to recount. Growing up in Syria, he went on to pioneer a drug to treat asthma and served as the inspiration for a character in the children’s book ‘Swallaws and Amazons’.
As her father neared the end of his life, Barbara’s family were at first strongly opposed to the idea of her interviewing him and nosing into his memories. But she persisted, even postponing journalism training at the BBC to spend time learning about her father’s past.
“He died two weeks after I finished and all my family and siblings wanted a copy of the audio recording,” Barbara recalled. “Since then I’ve been on telly and made films. People recognise me and ask me if I’m the woman who does recordings about life stories.”
Recording her father’s story led her to consider the value of doing so for others. She created a charity dedicated to the cause, called The Hospice Biographers, as well as a more recent project, Family-Talk which offers a therapeutic experience for those at the end of their lives, recounting their memories to family members.
The charity has listeners across the country and offers end of life comfort for people around the world wanting their families and others to remember their life stories.
“For the patients, it gives them joy,” she said. “You might have a big wealth of property but everyone would like to leave something to be remembered by and the most valuable thing of all can be their voice. It is a form of talking therapy. People always feel better afterwards. They remember happier more colourful days when they were having fun and had independence.”
She added: “For the families, it gives them a lasting memory and, in the world of the media, audio is more powerful than pictures.”
To get involved with Family-Talk and record your family member’s stories, get in touch via the Family-Talk website here.
To help cover the cost of recording these precious memories, donate to Family Talk or Hospice Biographers.
