OurStories

“I’m going to be writing a book! Telling my life story! Sharing with others our experiences of the past,” said my then 90 year old mother, Bernice, who is in care in an Australian Retirement Care Home. My mom was excited and quite animated telling me of how Owen McGoldrick had come to Seabreeze Aged Care to encourage the group to share experiences of the past with the aim of putting together a book that would be a compilation of their stories and life experiences.

Each time I visited my mother I would hear more about ‘the book’ and over a short period of time what had apparently started out as a larger group of interested Residents became a regular group of three, including Bernice. My mother’s week became focused on the visits and Owen’s encouragement for each of the group to relate various memories ranging from early youth to arrival into age care. He tape-recorded many stories that were finally set forth in a great little publication – ‘Our Stories’. Childhood, work, wartime, marriage, travel, even fine foods!

Thanks, Owen, for enriching my mother’s life!

Angela Younger – Kingscliff, Australia February, 2015

Frank for book page