I have heard it said that when someone passes away, it’s like a library burning down. And naturally every year, we lose more and more knowledge retained in the lives and experiences of those who have gone before us. Last week, I lost my grandmother, Lois Carpini, who lived to the ripe old age of 97. What more could one ask for but to have someone in their life for so long. I am so lucky that she lived a good long life, and that she got to know my wife and our four children who loved her dearly. My grandmother meant so much to me, and she will always hold a special place in my heart.

She was proud to say that she drove me to my very first museum meeting at the Hancock County Historical Museum when I was 15 years old, kindling in me a love for history, specifically our local history, that still burns bright today.

Since I started writing this piece in the paper more than five years ago, I constantly relied on her and her deep knowledge of our local history to help connect pieces of the past. She could recall up until recently, events in her life going back decades, like as a little girl watching President Roosevelt drive down Pennsylvania Avenue in October 1932 in a yellow convertible. She watched from her window of the home she was born in on Pikeview Road. She remembered in 1939 riding her bicycle in the Weirton Fourth of July parade, right on the eve of World War II, and could recall all the changes the war brought to our community as a result of the conflict.

She could recall how it felt to celebrate V-E and V-J Day and welcome the soldiers home after many years of fighting. She could tell me about the Weirton bus crash of 1951, and how she passed the bus as is sped down the hill. She told me about the 1936 flood, the blizzard of 1950, listening to Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” in 1938, working at the Hub Department Store in 1946, the developments of Weirton neighborhoods, about who lived in what house and when and a little story about any family we ever met, such as who they married, and who their kids, parents and grandparents were, and their connection to us.

Most surprisingly, my grandmother could remember it seems, like every student she ever had as first-grade teacher at St. Joseph the Worker School in Weirton, a position she had from 1960 -1989. She would say with pride that she had that person in her first grade. She was very proud of each and every one of those students.

When I was born, my grandmother was already 60 years old, having lived a lifetime before I ever came on the scene. Her passing, to me, is the losing of the link I had of the living past. When talking about these articles and what I might write about from time to time, she would tell me that I needed to write about something historic for a change. I would remind her that she lived through historic times and that events from her life, even though she remembered them, are in fact, historic. This goes to show the truth that we all know, it doesn’t matter how old we are, we can still feel young on the inside.

Going forward, I feel more dedicated than ever to preserving and recording history for our future generations. My responsibility as a historian is a keeper of stories that I hope to record for posterity. There have been many in my shoes before, writing of their lives, their community or the lives of their family in our area. Specifically, Mary Ferguson, Louis Truax, Pam Makricosta, Inez Orler and so many more. Thankfully, we also have the aid of centers of history in our area that record and preserve our past, so it is not lost. The Weirton Museum, the Hancock County Historical Museum, Historic Fort Steuben and the Jefferson County Historical Association, are organizations that exist to be repositories of our past. Not to mention our local libraries, such as the Mary H. Weir Public Library and the Local History and genealogy department in the Schiappa branch of the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County. Both of these places have robust local history collections that boast so much history to be discovered.

Many people become interested in history as a result of researching family genealogy. My colleague at Historic Fort Steuben, Judy Bratton always says that the majority of people don’t really become interested in history until they, themselves, have a history of their own. And I have found that to be true in my experience, as well. It really doesn’t matter when you become interested in the past, there is always time to commit to pen and paper your unique history. What you remember about growing up, your neighborhood, your parents, grandparents, your community and on and on. Pass that history on to a loved one, a friend, a neighbor or one of our important history organizations.

These memories and stories will greatly aid a researcher in the future, although you many never see it. I can’t express to you, dear readers, how much I have benefited from firsthand accounts of everyday lives of people of the past. Not to mention, it will give your loved ones a better understanding of who you are. I am blessed to have been able to put in these articles, and my book, “Historic Tales of the Upper Ohio Valley,” some of the memories of my grandmother that she collected in 97 years of life. Although losing the library of knowledge is inevitable for all of us at some point, hopefully far in the future, we can save a few volumes for generations yet to come. In this way, we can pass a little of ourselves and our history into the infinite future.

(Zuros is the executive director of Historic Fort Steuben)