Guests filed into the Anglican Church Hall in Shawville on Thursday morning for the second part of a workshop taught by local author Lynette Harris and organized by the Connexions Resource Centre.
The two-part class offered local seniors an introduction to writing their life story.
Over the course of the morning workshop participants shared the first few pages of their own story they had penned since meeting at the first session in September.
“That’s what we did today, we went around, and they all read out their stories,” Harris said. “I thought they would be hesitant, but it was quite the opposite and that was very refreshing to me.”
Sally Swan and Irene Richardson came from Wakefield to participate in the workshop. Swan said that the Wakefield Golden Age Club also works with Connexions, so they heard about Harris’s workshops through them.
“I find that it’s an exercise that allows seniors to reflect on their own lives and see the value of what they’ve done and how much they’ve contributed to,” Swan said. “In addition, it’s a great way to make exchanges and connect with other people.”
Richardson learned about how to make it easier to start writing your story.
“Think about it as if you’re writing to a person, maybe to your grandson or to your daughter or to your sister,” Richardson said. “So it’s easier to write and you have a purpose to write the story.”
Swan said that there aren’t many people who still write to each other. She found that this workshop connected them all together and they realized how similar their pasts were.
“This was an excellent workshop because we all connected and related to one another and to our past,” Swan said. “The chapter one of somebody else’s book would fit right in with my book.”
Harris started writing her first book after her mother passed away. It was the first time she’d ever tried to write anything like a book.
“After my mother died, I remember saying to my aunt that it was such a shame that my grandchildren, who at that time were very young, will never hear all her stories,” Harris said. “I was grieving at the time so I started writing and wrote the whole book in about 10 days.”
Harris explained that her mother was in the British Air Force when she met her father, a Canadian who was in the Canadian Air Force. They met in England before coming to Canada and living on a farm. Harris wanted to remember and share all these stories she grew up knowing with her two children and nine grandchildren.
While Harris had only ever hoped for the book to be for her family, she’s sold almost 300 copies and also written a rhyming children’s book.
At the first workshop in September, participants heard Harris speak about some of her stories and got tips and tricks for writing their own stories and figuring out what to include in them. She said that writing helped her overcome difficult times and she wanted to encourage other people to share their stories.
“I do believe that everybody has a story and everybody should write their life story,” Harris said. “It’s important to leave your life story for your children and grandchildren.”
In September, she asked the participants to take part in an exercise before the second part of the workshop.
“I gave them homework to do where they would start to write their book and we would all critique their writing,” Harris said, noting she was surprised at how many people engaged with the exercise and were open to sharing it on Thursday.
“I thought maybe half the people would start writing but not want to say it out loud in the group,” Harris said. “But every one of them had written at least the first few pages or the first chapter of their book.”
The participants in the workshop were all 55 years of age or older and Harris wanted them to understand that telling your story isn’t just about sharing it with other people.
“They were all seniors, and they were all either parents or grandparents,” Harris said. “They’re doing it for their family, but it’s equally important to do it for yourself.”
Harris plans to conduct another workshop like this in Wakefield later this year.
The Shawville chapter of Connexions Resource Centre is hosting a series of workshops every other Thursday from 10 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. in the Anglican Church hall in Shawville. Scheduled topics include fraud prevention, diabetes, and several art workshops. All information can be found at centreconnexions.org/en/events/ .
