Danon’s Interview
Many great organizations started with a founder who loved the product/service before it was even a product/service. Regarding MemoryVideo.com, I started interviewing seniors living in assisted living communities ever since my dad was a resident of one, and later when I operated senior living communities as a professional. In the start up phase of my first company, I would spend a week, sometimes two weeks living among the seniors and employees, and just get so fascinated by the residents and the people who care for them.
One day, we had a new resident named Danon, a good natured man who was almost 100 years old, who needed an escort to a doctors appointment. I volunteered to take him. We look a Lyft to the hospital and Danon saw his doctor. As Danon was leaving with me, his doctor said, “make sure you hear about his life, he was a glider pilot in World War II and he was in Operation Market Garden!” As someone who loves history and stories, I followed the good doctor’s advice and next chance I got, I decided to interview Danon. I first developed trust with him. Told him a little about me. We talked and I formulated interesting points in his story that I wanted to make sure we talked about. Then, after lunch at the dining table, I interviewed Danon with my iPhone as he was sitting next to his friends Carol and Bob (you can hear them also listening to Danon’s story in the video). After getting around 10 mins or so of uncut footage, I emailed the videos to Danon’s daughter via dropbox and she was so grateful. That was in 2018.
In 2021, after hearing about Danon’s recent passing, I thought about that footage and other interviews that I did and how I really loved connecting, learning, and sharing. I also thought about interviews where I didn’t record, and those stories were only in my head; how I wished I could have provided the gift of video. That’s how I thought about MemoryVideo.com. Most times, we just need that push to do something we know we need to do. Interviewing, taking videos, editing, and doing historical research are skills and time consuming processes. That first video of Danon took me several hours to edit a 6 min video. Really professional productions can be an investment of several thousands of dollars ($5,000 to $20,000), which for some it’s so worth it, and for many others, cost and time prohibited. I wanted to make it easy and affordable to record our loved ones so we can cherish them in our lifetimes and in future generations.
“Thank you so much for sending the video. It made me sad but proud of Dad. I do miss him. If Kyle wants to use this video, please do. I like the incorporation of pictures and maps. Thank you again.” – Dana (Danon’s Daughter)
Note from the MemoryVideo.com Team: Danon is a great ambassador for his senior living community and also gets viewers searching for “WWII Veteran” on YouTube.