The Grandma Tapes

“Hello, kids. This is Grandma Beth. I wish I could be there in person to tuck you in. But since I can’t, let me read you a bedtime story that was one of Uncle Doug’s favorites when he was little.”

So begins another installment of the “Grandma Tapes”—tape recordings my mother, Beth Whitaker Evans, sends to her twenty-five grandchildren and seventeen stepgrandchildren, most of whom live far away from her.

Mother has several different recordings that she distributes according to age and interests. A favorite for all of us is a collection of stories that Mother reads from an old family volume. The teen and preteen grandchildren have been inspired by her tape entitled “Kids Who Made a Difference.” In this, Mother tells several stories of teens who achieved remarkable results when they helped others. She has since built upon this idea by gathering stories of various family members who have had a positive influence on others.

In each tape, Mother intersperses stories with personal comments such as “Now, wasn’t that great?” She avoids sounding “canned” by just being herself; in one tape she clears her throat and asks to be excused while she gets a drink of water. Some of the tapes are accompanied by relaxing classical music.

Regardless of the length of time since they have last visited their grandmother, the children in our family feel an immediate kinship and closeness as they talk with her about the stories. The tapes have provided a wonderful vehicle for sharing her testimony and values with her posterity. And they have proved invaluable to us as parents in helping each child go to bed having ended the day on a positive note.—Anne W. Law, Mesa, Arizona