War Vets John (WWII) and Jerry (Vietnam) on Love and Their Marriage
John Banvard, 100, and Jerry Nadeau, 72, are military veterans, and served in World War II and Vietnam, respectively.
When they met in 1993, they were “sort of in the closet.” John’s wife of over 35 years had died nearly a decade prior and he had never been in a serious relationship with a man. Neither had Jerry.
At first, the two seemed worlds apart. John was a lover of art and theater, while Jerry was an outdoorsman. But they hit it off and soon became inseparable.
Today, they live together in a senior home for veterans in Chula Vista, California — just a few miles south of San Diego, where they were married in 2013.
Top photo: John Banvard (L) and Jerry Nadeau at their home in Chula Vista, CA.
Bottom photo: Jerry Nadeau (L) with John Banvard outside their home in Chula Vista, CA.
Originally aired February 09, 2018 on NPR’s Morning Edition.
A Mother on Surviving the Tet Offensive and Escaping from Vietnam
On January 31, 1968, Lan Cao’s family was living just outside of Saigon, getting ready to celebrate the Lunar New Year of Tet. Instead, her father — a military commander — had to rush off to war.
The North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong had launched a surprise attack on her city and over one hundred other South Vietnamese locations. This became known as the Tet Offensive, and was one of the biggest military campaigns of the Vietnam War, which led to a decline in public support in the United States.
Lan was 7 years old. She and her family would eventually resettle in the US. Lan graduated magna cum laude from Mount Holyoke and earned a law degree from Yale. She’s now a professor of international economics law and lives in California.
At StoryCorps, Lan sat down with her teenage daughter, Harlan Van Cao. Harlan was 12 at the time of their interview — just a year shy of the age Lan was when she arrived in the United States. Lan shared what it was like to live under siege before rebuilding her life in America.
Top photo: Harlan Van Cao and her mother Lan Cao at their StoryCorps interview in Westminster, California.
Bottom photo: Lan Cao’s passport from the Republic of Vietnam, also known as South Vietnam. Courtesy of Lan Cao.
This interview came through the First Days Story Project, recorded in partnership with WGBH and PBS American Experience.
Originally aired February 2, 2018, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
A Mother on the Challenges of Becoming a Teenage Parent
April Gibson and her teenage son, Gregory Bess, love talking to each other. Gregory says they can talk for hours, and that he feels he learns more from his mom than from school. But there was one subject that they hadn’t really explored.
So when the StoryCorps MobileBooth traveled to St. Paul, Minnesota recently, April invited her son to sit down with her for a recorded conversation.
Gregory asked about his mom’s childhood and their family’s past. He learned that his mom was a quiet kid who liked to write, and that his grandfather was a party DJ before becoming a pastor.
But April knew her 16-year-old had something more he wanted to talk about.
Bottom photo: April Gibson and Gregory Bess in 2001. Courtesy of April Gibson.
Originally aired January 19, 2018, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Anna Freeman and Brianna Freeman
Most of the people who step into a StoryCorps booth have never interviewed anyone before. But, as every great interviewer knows, the best moments are often the ones you can’t plan for.
That’s what Anna Freeman discovered when she sat down with her 8-year-old daughter, Brianna, in our Chicago StoryBooth and asked what seemed to her to be a simple question.
Bottom photo: Brianna Freeman poses as her favorite mythical creature, the unicorn. Courtesy of Anna Freeman.
Originally aired December 29, 2017, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Thompson Williams and Kiamichi-tet Williams
Thompson Williams and his son Kiamichi-tet came to StoryCorps in 2014 to talk about Thompson’s father — and Kiamichi-tet’s grandfather — Melford Williams, a tribal leader with the Caddo Nation in Oklahoma and a World War II veteran.
During that conversation, they also remembered a family Christmas in 2001.
They were living in Edmond, Oklahoma at the time. Kiamichi-tet was 11 years old and his sister, AuNane, was 14. Thompson was a teacher’s assistant for students with special needs — work he loved but that didn’t pay well. His wife was an artist, selling paintings and handmade Christmas ornaments.
As the holidays approached, Thompson realized they wouldn’t have money for gifts, and he was faced with a difficult decision. But, as he remembers here, it was his children who would help him make the right choice.
Originally aired December 22, 2017, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Hear more on episode 514 of the StoryCorps podcast, His First and Greatest Teacher.
David Wynn and Carolyn Lyon
The scene could be a bleak one — a hospital room, a patient near death, and no family or loved ones present during their final moments. But David Wynn and Carolyn Lyon are determined to prevent the lonely from dying alone.
David and Carolyn are volunteers at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, California, where they sit at the bedside of dying patients. David has been doing these vigils since 2008; Carolyn began in 2011.
When they get a call from the hospital staff that someone is alone and nearing death, David and Carolyn rush to the hospital — even in the middle of the night — to sit by the side of a stranger.
Originally aired November 24, 2017, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Karen Goodwin and Marlene Shay
This is a story of two women brought together by an unintended consequence of the opioid epidemic. As of late 2017, as the number of deaths skyrocketed, about one out of every 10 organ donors had died of an overdose.
When 21-year-old Adam Shay overdosed on heroin in 2014, his pancreas and kidney were donated to a stranger, Karen Goodwin, who was a recovering addict herself. At the time of her transplant, she had been sober for 13 years.
Karen reached out to Adam’s mother, Marlene Shay, a year after his death. They sat down for this conversation at StoryCorps in Beachwood, Ohio.
Originally aired November 17, 2017, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Bottom image: Karen Goodwin and Marlene Shay at StoryCorps in Beachwood, OH.
Greg Houston and Lynne Houston
Many StoryCorps conversations touch on love, work, and death. But when Lynne Houston and her husband, Greg, sat down for their interview, they covered all of that and more just by talking about their first date.
They met 25 years ago in Buffalo, New York. Lynne worked at a restaurant across the street from the funeral home where Greg was a mortician.
Greg charmed Lynne, despite his work bleeding into their romance. When Greg picked her up for dates, he would sometimes be accompanied by an occasional corpse from the hospital. After six months, the couple took a romantic weekend away and drove through upstate New York — in his hearse.
Lynne and Greg eventually married on All Souls Day and now live in McLeansville, North Carolina, where they recorded with StoryCorps.
Top photo: Greg and Lynne Houston at their StoryCorps interview.
Middle photo: Greg and Lynne Houston in 1992, the year they met. Courtesy of the Houston family.
Bottom photo: Lynne and Greg Houston on their wedding day, November 2, 2001. Courtesy of the Houston family.
Originally aired October 27, 2017, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Russell Lehmann and David Apkarian
Air travel can be a stressful experience for just about anyone. But for 26-year-old Russell Lehmann, a flight delay or cancellation isn’t just a small inconvenience. He was diagnosed with autism at age 12, and unexpected changes can cause him to have a meltdown — when sensory overload causes him to lose control and break down crying.
That’s what happened when he tried to catch a flight from Reno, Nevada to Cincinnati. At StoryCorps, Russell sat down with David Apkarian, an airline employee, to remember that difficult day.
Russell is a poet and advocate for autism awareness who regularly speaks about his experiences on the autism spectrum. Learn more about him and his work here.
Originally aired September 22, 2017, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Bottom photo: Russell Lehmann and David Apkarian on the day of Russell’s meltdown, June 3, 2017. Courtesy of Russell Lehmann.
Sylvia Bullock and Marcus Bullock
In the mid-1990s, Reverend Sylvia Bullock was raising two kids on her own near Washington, D.C. while working and going to college full-time.
Her teenage son, Marcus, saw how hard his mother was working — and how little they had — and decided to take matters into his own hands. He and a friend committed a carjacking, and although he was 15 years old, Marcus was tried as an adult. He served eight years for the crime.
Marcus was released in 2004. Since then he has created an app, called Flikshop, that makes it easier for inmates and their families to stay in touch. His mom works for his tech company as Fulfillment Manager and Mom-In-Chief. She received her Doctor of Ministry in 2008.
Originally aired August 11, 2017, on NPR’s Morning Edition.