Maybe start writing, and if they are still alive recording, those stories down. We don't listen to our elders any more.  Instead of caring for them and having them help raise our children they get put away in kid free retirement communities or facilities. I was blessed to spend some months having my great grandmother's sister living with me.  She not only was devoted to my newborn son (though hesitant to hold him because she was frail ) but she would also sit and tell me her stories from the Great Depression and others. I miss her.