Are you Spence Coleman?
Right. Come in. You’re my interviewer?
Yes. Is this a convenient time?
Sure. Come in. Have a seat. Let’s talk.
They didn’t tell me much.
That’s okay. I’ll explain. See, I want to tell my life story somehow. Put it online on a Website. There are a few people who I think would be interested.
Okay. And how would I fit in?
Well, I thought it might be easier — and better — if I did it by way of an interview.
I see.
We can do it in as many sessions as it takes. You record what we say — I see you’re already recording this conversation — and then you have your IT person transcribe it and upload it.
Okay. That’ll work.
I figure each session would make one page of the Website. You could give each page an appropriate title.
I can do that.
In the next session we can begin with when I was young and go on from there. But first let me set it up with a brief overview.
Okay.
I’m a retired technical writer. I’ve lived in a number of states at different times: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois.
Now I’m living in suburban Baltimore, Maryland. And I’m a long-time community volunteer. We can cover all of that in time.
Will this be just about you? How about family and friends?
I want to respect the privacy of others. I’ll mention just initials when it’s appropriate. But let me say just one thing about family members, and then I won’t mention them again.
Okay.
Soon after graduating from college, I married a young woman I met there. That marriage lasted 20 years and ended in divorce. We had a daughter and a son.
Then I married a woman who already had two daughters. She passed away after 36 years together. So I am now a widower with three daughters and a son.
They’re all adults now, and I have a good relationship with all of them.
So I’m not going to name names. If they want to “out” themselves, it’s up to them. But I’m protecting their privacy.
Got it.
Well, that’s enough for now. But I would like to leave you with a poem I came across shortly after my wife died. Author unknown. Read it and then have your IT person upload it. Okay?
Right.
Good. Here it is.
If Tears Could Build a Stairway
If tears could build a stairway,
And memories a lane,
I’d walk right up to heaven
And bring you back again.
No farewell words were spoken;
No time to say goodbye.
You were gone before I knew it,
And only God knows why.
My heart still aches with sadness,
And secret tears still flow.
What it meant to love you
No one can ever know.
But now I know you want me
To mourn for you no more;
To remember all the happy times;
Life still has much in store.
Since you’ll never be forgotten,
I pledge to you today:
A hollowed place within my heart
Is where you’ll always stay.