About Us
and Why We Help with Memoirs
Extraordinary Lives is a family-owned company, created to provide help with memoirs that celebrate today and preserve cherished life stories for tomorrow.
I (Mary Ann) operate this business as my full-time career. I'm one of the lucky ones in this world...doing work that is meaningful and joy-filled. My passion for personal histories comes from my own family, especially my father and my daughters.
Thanks to my father, I have a large and widely dispersed extended family. Despite the distance, my aunts, uncles and cousins have kept in close contact, holding reunions every two years. Each one that I have attended has given me more clarity about my ancestors' hardships and joys, thanks to the many stories that are shared. Since my Dad passed away in 2005, I seek and hold on to these nuggets of history as if they were gold. Truth-be-told, they are gold to me.
Three incredible teachers have blessed my life in the past sixteen years; my daughters, Becky, Allyson and Katelyn have, each in their unique fashion, taught me the importance of tradition, shared memories and stories.
Before forming Extraordinary Lives, I spent over 20 years in the survey research industry. What I enjoyed most about my work was the fundamental nature of research-a relentless focus on learning about people and how they think and act. That focus on learning by asking questions, along with writing and deploying new technologies, were great training for helping people with their memoirs.
My husband Lynn brings his own history and stories into our world; we married in 2000 and have enjoyed melding our two families and lives into one. We are good complements; he is quite outgoing and talkative, with an eye for art and photography. I'm a bit more introspective, with an affection for technology. We are both informal, love all sorts of humor, and above all, share a belief in the importance of family.
Besides helping with memoirs, our passions include hiking, music, travel and time with our girls. I also serve as the coordinator for the Great Lakes region of the Association of Personal Historians.
Together, Lynn and I are happy to be right here, ready to help you with your memoir book, video, recording or memory book.
Wishing you the best of what life has to offer,
Mary Ann Mayers
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