What Would Your Memoir Say?

Anytime wewrite anything, we have to first determine who our audience would be.  Knowing to whom you write, determines howand what we write.  I've read many memoirs over the past fewyears, and can see a difference quite easily of what audience the author wantedfor their memories.  There were a fewdifferent types of memoirs I discovered. More may exist, but these are the ones I noticed most.
1.    The General Audience – This is when the author focusesmainly on their accomplishments and the road of their life experience thatbrought them to that point of success. It's quite the 'brag' memoir. Mostcelebrities are found here.2.    The Professional Audience – This is when the author wants toimpress the elite of their field by way of showing their own discoveries,talents and achievements with their professional ability. In my case it wouldbe writing.3.    The Specific Audience – This is when the author focusesmainly on their peers (those with the same interests), and the road of lifeexperiences that brought them to that specific point of view, be it political,social or religious ideology.  4.    The Intimate Audience – This is when the author focusesmainly on those they are relation with, and hope to spread understanding andenlightenment to those intimate relations, revealing the purposes behind manyof their choices, and through the example of their life experiences, show howthey arrived to the point of view they carry.
I've beenasked to write a memoir for someone else, someone of prominent standing in theworld, and was excited about the project, which was being written for ageneral, professional and specific audience. However, I recently discovered what I truly desired was for this memoirto have been for an intimate audience. I didn't want to showcase this personand all of their success in the world.  Iwanted to tell a story that spoke of bravery, growing pains, making mistakesand learning from them, and ultimately humanizing this person – pulling themoff their public platform and showing them for the frail human they were; notfor them, or those in their professional community, but for their family,especially their grown children.
You mightask yourself why I would have wantedto do that for this person.  The simple answeris: Because I wanted the same for myself. I have two daughters and a son who are all young adults now.  They are making their way through this worldas best they know how.  Sometimes theymake good decisions and sometimes bad, just like everyone else.  They're old enough now that our relationshipneeds to change, moving from me being their over-bearing, protective Mama Bear,to becoming their Rock of Safety and Acceptance.  No matter how much we try to deny it, we all strivefor the acceptance of our parents, even if we hate and despise them.  The only way I can become beneficial forthem, is to change the way they see me. I will always be their mother, and they will always love me for that –even if they're angry with me.  However,if I'm to be of any value to them as an adult, they need to see me as anindividual, someone who's lived a life just as they're living now, someone whohas made mistakes and learned to get back up, someone who has had fears oftheir own and learned to face them.  Ineed them to see me as a person of my own, not just their mother.  I need to become human to them.  I was once a little girl with hopes andfears; a teenager with angst and dreams; a young woman trying to make her wayin this world the best I knew how, and then a mother, a woman of a professionalcareer, and now a woman chasing her dreams.  If my young adult children cansee that I'm just as fallible, scared, weak, strong, determined, and capable offailure as I strive for success, then that is a good thing.  Not that they can see they are either betteror worse than me, but that we both stand on common ground in this world – as equals.  I'm not their judge, jury and executioner intheir quest to become independent adults. I can let go of the reins I've had to use in raising them (pulling themup, pushing them on, pulling them back), but I'd want them to know they don'thave to walk alone.  THAT would be thememoir I'd write. 
What aboutyou? Who would you write your memoir for?  Whatwould your memoir say and why?
Till nexttime,~T.L. Gray