About us
Writing for my day job had always been the plan. A visit to the BBC centre in London on my thirteenth birthday inspired me to want to follow in the footsteps of Kate Adie and become a foreign correspondent.
The dream was annoyingly quashed by my father at the point of selecting my university course. Heading up a university careers service at the time, he had seen far too many students fall by the wayside when applying to the Beeb and recommended that I opt for a more circumspect career path. The chosen route was to study for a degree in International Business & German and I spent the following twenty something years working in sales and marketing roles for global branded food businesses including Cadbury.
For the most part, I found the challenge of selling branded goods to the UK supermarkets fulfilling. It was fast-paced, creative, and I still was able to frequently apply my love of writing to scribing compelling presentations and communicating brand stories. But the pang of wanting to write in the more purest sense would frequently raise its head. Sometimes in the most unexpected of places.
Reading the “Day in my Life” section in The Sunday Times when written by authors would normally reawaken the desire. But I also recall taking my children to visit Roald Dahl’s museum in Great Missenden and feeling an emotion that can best be described as “shed-envy.” His writing shed housed an eclectic mix of his lifetime memorabilia, but it was also his sanctuary for dreaming up the most fascinating universe of eccentric characters and outlandish creatures. I knew at that point that in my lifetime, I still had an overwhelming desire to write. Preferably in a shed.
The catalyst for making my dream a reality unexpectedly arrived during Covid lockdown.
In early 2021, my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. As a family we were crushed. Dad was renowned for his storytelling and he kindly agreed that I could write his life story. He had far too many dinner-table stories to risk losing them to the grave. Little did I foresee that within a few months, he would devastatingly lose both his mind and memory as chemotherapy took its toll on his body.
During the four months Dad spent in hospital, the stories of his life became a powerful communication tool between us and an unexpected form of therapy for him. He revelled in listening to the tales of his childhood, many of which were full of hope, humour and comfort. Whilst his rapidly progressive form of dementia brought fear and confusion, reading to Dad from his own manuscript of memories would allow us to enjoy some precious and miraculously lucid conversations together. We found light in the dark of his situation.
Sadly Dad didn’t live long enough to see his book in print; but our family now has the deep comfort of knowing that we have captured his most precious stories, reflections on life and photographs in a beautiful book – a wonderful legacy for the entire family and future generations to come.
The Memory Shed is a business that passionately wishes to help others capture the irreplaceable memories and stories of their lives and milestone events in a highly personalised and bespoke way. Your memories matter to us as much as our own. Please do get in touch to see how we may help.
