Consider giving a family story this Father’s Day.
Whether you’re a dad or grandpa who is relating a true tale or a child or grandchild who is listening to it, you’ll emerge from the experience enriched.
Just ask Ron Shoemaker. The South Charleston man has recently written the story of his life for his grandchildren. He was inspired to tell it, he says, because his own dad did something similar.
“I lived in South Vienna from the time I was 3 until I was 40, and our family ran the grocery store there,” explains Shoemaker, 77, whose completed story is 52 typewritten pages. “I divided my life into 10-year increments and used old photo albums, slides and important dates and events to jog my memory.”
Many of the stories involved life at the grocery store.
"When I was 5 years old my mother made me some butcher's aprons so I could work in the store," Shoemaker remembers. "My advice to others is to take your time and remember it is your story, so tell what you believe is entertaining, enlightening, but especially factual. "
Story projects make it easy
Sophia Johnson says her father, Jim, gave her a wonderful Father’s Day gift when he joined her to participate in StoryCorps. The national project records oral histories from around the nation, then archives them at the Library of Congress. Some of the stories are edited and aired on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” some are aired on WYSO 91.3 FM.
Though the father and daughter have worked together at WDAO Radio for 26 years — he is president and general manager, she is sales and promotion manager — Sophia says she learned things about her dad in their 40-minute conversation that amazed her.
“I knew the overall story of his life, but I learned details about what he went through to get where he is today,” says Johnson, who says the recording session was a gift she will cherish for the rest of her life.
“It was a unique father/daughter bonding without phones and doorbells ringing, no interruptions,” Sophia explains. “When he told his story it was like he was going back in time — he brought those stories to life.”
Johnson says these stories of determination and sacrifice can be inspirational to future generations.
“You don’t have to be in a StoryCorps booth to tell your story, ” she says. “So often when our family members pass on we wish we had taken time to hear their stories.”
Hospice provides storytelling opportunities for families
Vicky Forrest of Hospice of Dayton says stories inevitably emerge as the staff provides care for Hospice patients.
“Shared by patients and their loved ones, these stories serve as a source of healing for families, and can help patients develop a greater understanding and embrace of their personal experience,” she says. “They can serve to open doors to spiritual insight and reconciliation and can live on in the heart forever.”
Forrest says the organization started celebrating and honoring the lives of patients — with their permission — by sharing their stories a few years ago through their website and publications.
“We created the Story Garden this year as an extension of this project,” she explains. “The Story Garden display at our Hospice House offers a video touch screen that enables viewers to select a photo or quote they want to know more about. By touching the screen, they can connect to a story that can be scrolled and read in its entirety.”
Hospice volunteers also now work with families to videotape patients who want to share their life stories with family members.
Christina Gray of Wilmington said she “jumped all over the opportunity” to be one of the first to take advantage of the new “Celebration of Life” video project.
“My mother was 74 when she was admitted to Hospice in September of 2013,” says Gray, who says people had always loved hearing her mother’s stories. “With today’s technology the process was simple and it’s something you can have forever. It’s your family history, a legacy. If you don’t have something to share with the next generation, they have no clue where they came from.”
On the appointed date, Gray brought some family photos to the video session to help trigger her mother’s memory.
“Because of my mother’s poor health and dementia, the pictures helped prompt the stories,” she explains. “My mother was a child of the war who lived with her family on a farm in East Germany. They escaped from the Nazis and lived in a refugee camp.”
After her parent passed away, says Gray, they were able to show the treasured DVD at the church celebration of her mother’s life.
Spinning the Tale
Choosing a specific topic can make sharing stories less intimidating.
The Yellow Springs Tale Spinners, for example, have been telling stories together for over eight years and at a recent program, chose an Ohio theme: “Why, Oh Why, Ohio? Why did I come? Why do I Stay?”
After troupe members shared their own stories, there was an opportunity for audience participation.
In addition to presenting concerts throughout the Miami Valley, the professional storytellers teach storytelling workshops, train students in storytelling and volunteer their services with many area non-profit groups. If you’d like to get in touch with them, contact the Yellow Springs Arts Council at (937) 679-9722.
Organizations aid storytelling
Jude Whelley of Harrison Twp. is president of the Story Circle Network.
“Our organization is dedicated to helping women find their voices, tell their stories,” says Whelley, who was first introduced to the group when she met the national organization’s founder — mystery writer and memoirist Susan Wittig Albert — at a talk on herbs at Cox Arboretum.
Now she’s working on her own memoir.
“We have internet and in-person writing and reading circles, we publish a quarterly newsletter/journal and an annual anthology that provides publishing opportunities for our members,, often their first publication,” Whelley says. “We have an annual writing competition, a national conference every two years and a writing retreat on the off-conference years.
Her group has also established the first national award for women’s memoir and also offers a book review site that reviews books written by or for women.
“We have begun a new online group for women working on book-length projects, have poetry circles and a prison outreach program,” Whelley says. “We have a program called OWL (Older Women’s Legacy) that folks use in retirement and nursing homes.”
Whelley says the group is open to all women and invites them to check out www.storycircle.org
Says founder Susan Wittig Albert: “The healing that can grow out of the simple act of telling our stories is often quite remarkable.”
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