A recent letter from a fan friend prompted me to share how important memoir is. And this might give you an idea on how to start a project in your own community, paid or otherwise.
Dear Hope,
I totally concur with you that you never know just how much putting one’s thoughts on paper means. Your recent Editor’s Thought Column gave me pause to share some thoughts about memoir writing. As a junior high English teacher for more than 25 years, I had my students put their thoughts in three pages of a blue book weekly. Some students barely made three pages, but some wrote much more. Years later I ran into some of my former students who told me they still had their journals. That made me very gratified, and one said she was glad I had her write her feelings about 9/11 which she values as a first-hand account of this event 20 plus years later.
After retiring, I continued to journal and wanted to share this experience. I began to teach a memoir workshop at our local library. That has become successful monthly gathering of mostly retirees who have share wonderful encounters such as being invited to a New Year’s party at George Burns home in Hollywood, making breakfast for Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow while they were vacationing on Cape Cod and a former sea captain who docked in Calcutta, India many years ago and met Mother Theresa who used some salty language to talk to sailors. The participants feel they are part of a family when they read their stories to the group.
A few years ago, I got a call from a local nursing home asking if I could help a 90-year-old gentleman prepare his memoir for his family. I typed about 40 pages and bound two copies for him. He kept one and gave the other to his family. Many residents of that nursing home probably had great stories but had no access to word processors or arthritis kept them from writing or typing. This gave me an idea.
I contacted the nursing home’s administrator and the local high school and worked with the advisor of the National Honor Society. Both agreed to a project. Those NHS students are required to perform some civic duties, and I thought their electronic skills with laptops could be helpful in putting the residents’ oral memories to paper. I prepared a series of questions, and in three consecutive weeks, the students wrote down the individual’s stories.
A few weeks later the students brought a finished product in a binder and presented it to the resident. Several grandchildren who read the stories were amazed. They indicated that they never knew some of the stories about grandma or grandpa. One resident sadly passed away from the time the students completed the assignment to the finished product. When his granddaughter was presented with the binder, she was in tears. It was a lasting memory of her grandfather. The students, the nursing home staff, and I were deeply touched.
Al Caron
I felt this effort had such an impact that it merited mentioning in FundsforWriters. As someone who has spent a lot of time visiting people in nursing homes, who still offers to present to area nursing homes, I see people wanting to record their memoirs all the time.
If you are interested in this endeavor, consider talking with a nursing home about hiring you, offering a series of memoir packages from typewritten to hardbound published, or simply volunteer. This is a program sorely needed with an eager crowd.
For examples of memoir writing services, simply Google “memoir writing services” and you’ll be amazed at the number out there. Use them for guidance, for ideas, and to decide if this is an opportunity you might find suits you.
Very exciting ideas! What kind of binding was used when the authors received a copy?
You might try writing the author directly.