These are our stories

Mary was 7 when her mother died. Don was 8 when his died. Wilma was 12. Katharine was 17 when her mom died of lung cancer and leukemia...

Lou died last week. I am still in disbelief. After I wrote about her in a blog on Oct. 16 and linked it to my Facebook page, she...

In February, a woman from a neighboring town learned about my Life Stories classes and immediately expressed a strong interest in taking...

I am gearing up for fall Life Stories classes. This means I have times and locations set, and now I go through my list of prospective...

“Your heartache is someone else’s hope. If you make it through, somebody else is going to make it through. Tell your story.” — Kim...

In early spring I committed to working on writing the life stories of an 89-year-old Indianapolis man. His relatives who were hiring...

— This is the presentation I gave at tonight's Celebrate Today dinner, Memorial Hospital's quarterly celebration for cancer survivors —...

My “Remember When…?” discussion group at a local nursing home wanted to talk about moonshine last month. Bootlegging in the middle of the...

In 2015 I spent this week of March in an Indianapolis hospital, where I underwent a biopsy that revealed I had non-Hodgkin lymphoma....

“Like a friend said, it feels like a library burns down every time an elder dies.” — Jim Northrup, “Anishinaabe Syndicated” #writing

A few weeks ago I met one of my Life Stories participants at a local printer and handed over a stick drive with her stories on it. The...

“I wish I’d have listened more,” my co-worker said, referring to her father’s oral stories about his military service during World War...

These days find me sorting donations at the local St. Vincent de Paul store, and one day last week I came upon a large grocery bag filled...

“The greatest asset any old person has is his or her life experience. When you have the opportunity to interact with an old person, you...

After taking a nine-week Life Stories class, my groups continue meeting for six monthly follow-ups to share stories they have newly...

A woman who enrolled in a Life Stories class in January 2016 enrolled for a second time last fall. She is serious about her writing and...

Joan, my mom’s cousin and a close family friend, was a great cook, and the sweet treats she made were ahhh-mazing. I remember from my...

My Friday morning Life Stories classes meet in the library of the local senior center. During a class last week, a gentleman came in to...

Writing your life story is an opportunity like no other to look back on and share funny moments. A 90-year-old client and I shared many...

I’ve helped seniors write their life stories through which the writers’ grandchildren have learned that depression, heart disease and...