More from Sound Portraits
My Lobotomy
(00:28:33)
From: Sound Portraits
One man's quest to uncover the hidden story behind the lobotomy he received as a 12-year-old child.
Bergen-Belsen
(00:03:49)
From: Sound Portraits
In 1945, the BBC broadcasted one reporter's description and field recording of a Shabbat service conducted on the grounds of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in the days ...
Tossing Away the Keys
(00:27:38)
From: Sound Portraits
Louisiana State Penitentiary inmate Wilbert Rideau's report on fellow inmates who are serving life terms without the possibility of parole.
Yiddish Radio Project Holiday Special, Hour two
(00:59:00)
From: Sound Portraits
Two self-contained hours of special programming based on the acclaimed ten-part ATC series, with a Web site filled with photos, features, background, and sound at ...
Yiddish Radio Project Holiday Special, Hour One
(00:58:59)
From: Sound Portraits
Two self-contained hours of special programming based on the acclaimed ten-part ATC series, with a Web site filled with photos, features, background, and sound at ...
Funding Spot:Tossing Away the Keys, with Dave Isay
(00:02:25)
From: Sound Portraits
Funding Spot:Tossing Away the Keys, with Dave Isay
Funding Spot: Witness to an Execution, with Terry Gross
(00:01:33)
From: Sound Portraits
Funding Spot: Witness to an Execution, with Terry Gross
Funding Spot: Vinney at the Sunshine Hotel, with Terry Gross
(00:01:34)
From: Sound Portraits
Funding Spot: Vinney at the Sunshine Hotel, with Terry Gross
Funding Spot: Nate at the Sunshine Hotel, with Terry Gross
(00:01:34)
From: Sound Portraits
Funding Spot: Nate at the Sunshine Hotel, with Terry Gross
The Sunshine Hotel
(00:36:19)
From: Sound Portraits
This is an audio portrait of one of the final vestiges of the Bowery, New York's notorious skid row.
Related Pieces
Piece Description
The Ground We Lived On documents the loving relationship between journalist Adrian Nicole LeBlanc and her father, Adrian Leon LeBlanc, in the last months of his life. Using recordings she made of her father, namesake and inspiration from his hospital bed in the family living room, The Ground We Lived On is an ode to the ordinary ways we continue loving even as we are letting go. In January 2003, Adrian Leon LeBlanc was 85 years old and the father of four. He was in the final stages of lung cancer and had just entered hospice care. He spent his days in his house in Leominster, Massachusetts, a working-class town near Boston, in the company of his family. During this time, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc regularly drove in from her home in New York City to visit her father. Each time she visited, Adrian Nicole taped her conversations with her father. She wanted to preserve a record of their relationship and capture her father's voice. Adrian Leon LeBlanc had been a labor activist and World War II veteran; as such, he had always been outspoken on behalf of others' interests but was reluctant to talk about himself and his personal feelings. Still, he welcomed his daughter's recorder, believing that documenting the last months of his life might help other families who were going through similar experiences. The Ground We Lived On is a story of loving and losing a parent and the record of a father's final gift to his daughter: helping her to conceive of a world without him.
2 Comments
|
Review of The Ground We Lived OnThis is an extraordinarily beautiful piece. I could not recommend it more highly. There is so much raw emotion, so much honesty. I was honored to listen, and especially to hear the way so much love was expressed between father and daughter. I will not forget it. And such an important topic that we don't hear enough about - dying, saying goodbye, reckoning with life and love. Lovely, lovely piece of radio. Certainly one of those driveway moment pieces that you will have to sit and listen to until it's done... unless you have to turn the radio off right away because this topic is too close, too much. My husband and I have seven parents between us, and so far they are all alive and healthy. But I know this process is in my future, and I feel like I receive a gift every time I get a chance to hear how someone else goes through this experience. Thank you. |
Broadcast History
Aired on NPR's All Things Considered on November 13, 2006.
Transcript
Dad: Showtime? Showtime.
Adrian: I love your voice.
D: Can you understand it?
A: Yes.
D: Alright, let me hear it.
A: Say something.
D: How are you this evening?
A: Can you hear yourself?
D: Absolutely.
Adrian Leon LeBlanc, my dad and my namesake. His keen joy in observing people and the world is the reason I became a journalist.
D: I?m laying here while the reporter is establishing contact with the patient.
My father was born on June 28, 1917. He was a traveler, a knight of the open road as he called it, hopping trains during the Depression, shipping off to Italy during WWII, and, for most of my childhood, canvassing factories as a union organizer. Cancer was a journey that blindsided him.
D: I?m not sure what trip we?re on.
A: So what trip are we on?
D: I dunno. We?re on a trip of exploration into the feelings of a, I don?t know what you?d call me, I?m in my ei...
Read the full transcript
Timing and Cues
In January 2003, Adrian Leon LeBlanc was 85 years old and in the end stages of lung cancer. He had just entered hospice care. A retired union organizer and father of four, LeBlanc spent his days in his home in Leominster, Massachusetts, a working class town near Boston, in the company of his family. It was the same house his daughter, the writer Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, grew up in. She would often drive from her apartment in New York City to visit her father. And with his blessing, she brought along a tape recorder to document his final months of life.
With the help of producer Sarah Kramer, she used those recordings to create this audio essay.
Related Website
Of 9 purchasers of this piece...
- 6 also bought:
Jeff in Boston: Halfrican (00:13:12) - 6 also bought:My Lobotomy (00:28:33)
- 5 also bought:
Navajo Pentacostal (00:09:25) - 5 also bought:Matching Outfits Not Included (00:10:24)
- 5 also bought:
The WASPs: Women Pilots of WWII (00:21:43)
Julia O'Grady
Posted on May 30, 2007 at 10:30 AM | Permalink
Review of The Ground We Lived On
This piece is raw and elegant. The love flowed between and around the words. I am so glad I listened to the story. I will pass it on and go hug my dad.
Julia Scatliff O'Grady