Last Wednesday, we completed our second week of a four-week life story class at the OMI Senior Center. I can’t even begin to describe how inspired I felt when I left the class that morning. It was so amazing to hear the stories that the seniors were sharing — life in the Philippines during World War II when Japan invaded; moving to England alone at fifteen years old not knowing any English; home and family that the church provided; and more. It was not only educational for me, it was also an important reminder that life has so many possibilities. I’m excited that this Wednesday, we’ll actually start recording some of these stories on video. We’ll share more video highlights over the next month.
In the meantime, here are some pics from our class last week:
In recent years, personal life stories or memoirs have become more popular. We find more of them in the bookstores again, including best sellers like Jeannette Wall’s “The Glass Castle.” There is also a resurgence of memoir writing, or life story writing classes in many continuing education and community colleges.
You’ve probably heard that writing and sharing your life story can be a therapeutic process. Now you can learn more about the quantifiable and positive health effects of telling your life story.
We’re happy to welcome a guest, Angela Zusman, a professional personal historian, to give some tips on how to record our life stories in a series of videos for Famento. Angela has years of experience interviewing families, teaching life story classes, and working with individuals to record their life stories. Angela will be sharing tips with us in a series of videos. Enjoy!
